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BAHRAINI designers Samah Husain and Mohamed Modara turned life’s challenges into beautiful art ... making them feel truly blessed.
In October 2020, Samah was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. It was a difficult time for her as she also suffered from sickle cell anaemia and needed to seek treatment in Singapore. And, after two years of treatment, she returned to Bahrain in August 2022.
Now, the architect and interior designer is in the clear and on preventative hormonal medications for the next five to 10 years.
Samah and her husband, who live in A’ali, are thankful for every day they spend together, which has resulted in their colourful collection called The Blessed Man.
“The Blessed Man is the English translation of the name Mohamed,” said Samah, who had to close down her private practice after being diagnosed and now runs an online practice tackling one project at a time — when she isn’t spending her days drawing and learning the piano. In 2021, the couple started taking art classes as a form of therapy, while she went through a form of chemo called targeted therapy. Early in 2022, Mohamed started sketching the faces.
“Mohamed and I always felt we were blessed in life despite all the challenges we faced,” Samah added.
“Even when we were going through cancer (I say we because it affected both of us deeply) we still felt blessed and being watched over by angels.
“During the treatment, we were both overwhelmed with emotions. We tried different methods to deal with these emotions and the result was The Blessed Man’s work. I was the patient and Mohamed was the caregiver, but being near all of that takes a toll on you. Things needed to come out and so they did. After all, both our fields are forever connected with art.”
Mohamed has 15 years of experience in graphic design and currently manages different brands in the food and beverages sector. He also enjoys doodling and landscape photography walks.
“We are humble collectors of art and we travel to see and experience art, culture and architecture,” said Mohamed, who holds a Bachelor’s degree of arts and science in graphic design from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
“We believe that once you are in the art field, everything moves you - from shapes of the shadows created by the sun to the sound of nature.”
Yet, they still don’t see themselves as artists.
“We still don’t call ourselves artists,” said Samah, who holds a Bachelors of Arts degree with honours in architecture from Oxford Brookes University, in the UK. “But we needed to share this with the world, to be seen and heard, and be ambitious enough to inspire others to carve beauty out of their pain.
“Remember, the ability to share your work is a blessing.
“The ability to talk about it with a positive outlook is a blessing. In the meantime, we will keep creating beauty and simply enjoying ourselves in the process. Art is fun. Humans tend to make it so serious and rigid and forget to have fun in the process.”
For details, follow @theblessed.man on Instagram.
