Born in Delhi to the family of classical Dhrupad (an ancient form of music) devotees, Qamar Dagar was always drawn to visual arts, writing and painting, as well as reading poetry both in Hindi and Urdu. These kinds of arts are traditional for a person of her educational and cultural background.
She feels deeply privileged and genuinely happy to be immersed in the rich converging streams of classical music, art, and culture. Her graduation in sociology widened her intellectual horizon and sharpened her analytical view of society and culture.
Her close proximity to her spiritual and calligraphy guru, a skillful master of Arabic calligraphy, helped her to see the beauty of written words. He encouraged her to enjoy and believe in what she was doing.
Hassan Massoudy (Paris) from Iraq and Mohammad Elbaz from Morrocco, two renowned calligraphers, also had a strong influence on her, encouraging new ideas in her work.
She likes to pick a letter from a word and elaborate it so that it becomes the focal point.
To her, letters are complete designs in their own right.
She designs greeting cards, posters, brochures, and stage decoration for music concerts.
Her works are predominantly kept in private collections in India, France, and the USA.
She has had solo exhibitions in India, France and the US.
“Simplicity is the most beautiful and the most difficult to cultivate. This can come with time and experiences one gathers. Personally for me I am interested in both simplicity and embellishments as both complete the two ends of the spectrum. It can be very interesting to see the other side. This exploration can also be termed as our journey that we undergo with or without us knowing it, we imbibe a lot that eventually finds its place in our artistic expressions”.