Today’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will be presented in Arabic, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai and Spanish.

Greetings, loving viewers, and welcome to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television. Today’s show features the esteemed Iraqi artist and poet Mr. Paul Batou. Iraq is a country rich in artistic traditions, and Mr. Batou grew up in an environment where fine art was greatly appreciated.

My name is Paul Batou. I'm from Iraq, and I was born in 1959, in a small village located between Turkey and Iraq. In 1961 we settled down in Baghdad.

When we were young in Iraq, there were many artists there, very great artists, like Faeq Hassan, and the impressionist artist Khaled Al Qader, and Jawad Saleem, who has a statue in the center of Baghdad. It was next to my home and I used to see this statue every day, and I loved this statue very much.

There was also my teacher, Dr. Ala'a Hussein Bashir, and his surrealistic paintings which I used to meditate on, as if each painting attracted me into its depth in order to discover its mysteries. I’d also like to mention my teacher Abd Al Ellah Yaseen. He was an abstract artist in the college. He taught me the art of painting and painting forms, and helped me very, very much and I thank him very much.

While in college, Mr. Batou was greatly inspired by his teachers and decided to pursue a career as a painter. An important event in his life shaped the theme of his paintings.

What is the inspiration for your art?

The inspiration that guided me to the artistic way came from reading the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” the first Sumerian human epic that was written for the whole world. It changed my tendencies and I started to learn more about the history of Mesopotamia.

As an Iraqi and being from Mesopotamia, I've painted and written about the Iraqi person. I painted his history, his thoughts, and his art; and I also tried to form a relationship between his thinking from 3000 BCE and his thinking in the current time.

You can see in my paintings the church, the mosque, and the cross; all of these are scattered on the Iraqi ground in the current time.

I use white, black, red, violet, and many other colors. When I blend these colors, they all unite in one color, one beautiful color.

Mr. Batou graciously explained to us some of his artworks, many of which have received international awards or were published on magazine covers.

This painting is about the “Epic of Gilgamesh.” The original one is in Baghdad and it's very big, but I loved it very much, so I tried to create a smaller version of it. The “Epic of Gilgamesh” gives you very nice concepts. Besides it's well known and can be found in libraries across the globe. It has been translated into more than 25 languages, and is the first epic that was written for humankind.

And this painting?

This painting is like the suburbs of Nineveh. Did you know that Nineveh was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Assyria in northern Iraq? And the neighboring villages were inhabited by the Assyrian and Chaldean who speak the Aramean language. You see the big piece in their clothes. It was embroidered by hand. I like their colors so much.

This is a collection of paintings that I made in the American-Western style. There was a group exhibition in the United States where I received a lot of prizes. These are the galleries, and this is the Academy of Arts in Los Angeles. This painting got another prize. Here we have Zinda Magazine, it's an Assyrian magazine and it has published a lot of my paintings.

Besides being a painter, Mr. Batou also writes poems. His book, “My Last Thoughts about Iraq,” is a unique collection in which poetry is woven with paintings.

In 2005, I established a gallery in Los Angeles with the title “My Last Thoughts about Iraq.” In 1980, I began writing my thoughts and ideas and the things I heard from my friends. In 2005, I collected all these and painted it. I painted about 25 paintings and I added to my paintings the colors and the words as we see here. These, for example, are the written words from one of my poems, “Confession.” When we displayed the paintings, we translated the poems and made it a part of the painting, in order to help American readers understand better what was written.

Most of the people who loved the poems and the written words told me to publish them, and that they wanted copies of these poems. So I gave it to a publisher and published the book. People can order it from Amazon.com. It's a small book about the history of Iraq. Then we have my poetry; some say it's moving. It touches the emotions because it's the essence of innocent people.

We will continue our interview with Iraqi artist Mr. Paul Batou after these brief messages. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Benevolent viewers, welcome back to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television as we continue our interview with distinguished Iraqi artist Paul Batou.

We remember in Iraq, our friends, neighbors and our acquaintances, they were so generous. When they receive you, they receive you with great hospitality. They were so generous to the point of extravagance. The last time we were in Spain two years ago, my wife, my son and I found a small restaurant that had written on it “Arab Restaurant.” So we went in and the owner was an Iraqi person.

When we ate the food, it was very delicious and we liked it. The restaurant's owner refused to take any money from us, but I insisted on paying for the food. Then he offered us baklava, an Iraqi dessert, and we were so happy when we saw it. The owner was so happy upon seeing us, and we were so happy upon seeing him.

What would you say are some important cultural values of Iraq?

Iraq is the cradle of civilizations. The Sumerian, Assyrian, and the Chaldean civilizations, these were the first civilizations that offered knowledge to the world, like writing arts, architecture, and science. I wish that all the nations of the world would see this heritage, that's why we present ourselves to the world through art with all its variety and directions.

We have many of the intellectual and educated artists in Iraq who present many beautiful things to humanity and present an elegant art; they exist in the United States, Europe and almost in all the Arab countries.

Iraq has different people, meaning that Iraq is not only a homeland for Arabs or Kurdish or Turkmen; Iraq is also for Armenians, Assyrians and Chaldeans, they are the original people of Iraq. We want to show Iraq with all its components, directions, and all its differences. Diversity is a beautiful thing.

Do you find that there are any similarities between the people of Iraq and those of other nations?

The Creator of all human beings is one, and they all are born equal in the whole world. I dealt with many people in Europe, the US and other countries of the world. I loved them and they loved me, and I didn't notice any difference between us. The Iraqi people are like those from any another nation. They love peace and freedom and also love to settle down and love development.

The desire of all the Iraqi people and the desire of the Iraqi artists is to have a homeland that respects music and art, and all the beautiful things, a homeland that respects humans no matter what their religion, tendencies and ways of thinking.

We all share one goal, which is to work for this universe and for all of humankind.

Artists are often in harmony with the divine and spiritual self, as well as the world around them, be it humans, plants, or animals. This is especially true for Mr. Batou, who shares with us his thoughts on the interconnectedness of all things.

As for eating, is there any vegetarian food?

Of course there is vegetarian food. For example, my wife cooks our food without any meat, only with vegetables, and in Iraq we have the fasting time. We don't eat meat at all before the “Greater Bairam.”

It's better not to eat meat. In our home we don't eat meat too much.

We can see now that diseases are increasing, because we neglected nature and don't sympathize with the animals. Before in Mesopotamia, there was a group of gods and all these gods existed within people. I mean when there is a god for water, and the people worship this god, then as a result they preserve the water and keep it clean because their god exists within it. I pray to Allah, so His creations on Earth like the plants, water, air, animals, and anything else, all these are the creations of Allah and we must respect and protect them because they will affect us later. So I wish for all the people to protect what Allah has created.

My paintings currently portray everything that benefits humans, whether they are Iraqi or from any another country. I love freedom and glorify nature. I glorify nature very much, so I do my best to preserve it.

When asked about his message to the world, Mr. Batou gave a heartfelt response.

I thank people who are watching us today, and wish for them love and peace. And I ask them to love all kinds of art, music, plastic art, painting, and writing, and ask them to teach their children how to love these things, and teach them the splendor and effects on their thinking, on their studies and on the world that they live in. Art is a common language between all nations; it's the language of peace and love.

Thank you, Mr. Paul Batou, for sharing your beautiful paintings and inspiring thoughts with us. May Allah bless you and all artists with ever greater success in your noble endeavors of promoting the message of peace and love through your creative arts. May all people of the world unite in the universal language of art with the blessings of divine grace.

Caring viewers, thank you for being with us on today’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. Up next is Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, after Noteworthy News. Until next time.