Shiva Ahmadi's art relates a gripping universal story of beauty and humanity that persists even in the face of the brutalities of war. Growing up in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the artist Shiva Ahmadi recalls, she knew more about Jackson Pollock than Behzad, the master miniature painter of the Safavid court. Indeed, Ahmadi's distinct painterly style seems to combine the detailed precision of Behzad's hand with the fluid action painting of Pollock. Her artistic approach—drawing on allegory and imagery and insisting on gentle beautiful aesthetic perspectives keeps the work from becoming dogmatic or didactic.