GM GM everybody welcome to another episode of meme friends
Glad you could all make it
Special featured spotlight artists today. It's Naimi and Naimi. I hope I'm saying your name correctly. Please set me straight if it's wrong
I have butchered names before and I've had my name butchered. So it's it's all good. If you have to set me straight here and
Faded welcome. Hello GM GM. How you doing today? And yeah, I don't want to I I I'm gonna go with
Naimi Naimi and we'll see who's right Brett, but we'll see I think hopefully I think I'm right, but we'll see
But I'm doing well, how you doing today?
Good good. Good. No complaints. No complaints, you know, the weather is nice. It's getting better. So hey
Reasons to be optimistic all around so
Yeah, yeah, no, it's great. And you know, I wanted it's not Naimi. Are you here? I hope we're both saying it
You know, yeah, hopefully we're both not saying it wrong, which would make us really look great. But how you doing?
GM GM faded and the heart and everyone in the space
So so so wait, no, no, no
I think you have to tell us the right way of saying it because I think I heard you say both
But which one is it? So we just so we get it, right?
You know the the correct one is Naimi
But I feel like this is somehow hard for English natives to say Naimi
So Naimi is almost easier. Oh
Yeah for English natives, I think good good. I'm very happy to have gotten it, right? I'm sorry faded
I was closer to the pinman
Hey Naimi we'll try our best to pronounce it right but
Welcome to the show, right? We
Started meme friends. Gosh, it must have been like I think September of last year and
Just for everybody joining us. It really is meant to highlight
Artists that are you know up and coming in the space not like established, you know artists that you know are absolutely killing it
But really to form, you know, kind of that next, you know, several tiers of artists that you know
Need a bit more recognition and the idea behind it was to connect artworks with memes, right?
Very much inspired by what 6529 is doing with the memes
You know, but kind of more around friendship and
You know kind of getting together in a space that we all enjoy and creating memes, right?
So we are thrilled to have you today and you know, we'd love to dig into your you know
Your your story if you will on you know, how you came into the art
Digital art movement and a little bit more about your work, right because it's very cool. It's very pixelated
It brings complex topics and integrates that into you know, kind of a pixel canvas
And I think it's always interesting to kind of double click on those sort of elements
And kind of dig into your your you know, your journey if you will, but I want to start with that, right?
Tell us a little bit about you and your inspirations, right? What drove you to becoming an artist in the first place and
Maybe walk us through that that part of your backstory
Thank you, first of all, thank you for having me I think
the whole idea of meme friends was something that emerging artists need that so much in the space and
I have to say that being an artist
Was not a decision for me. I think I used to be an artist since I was a little child
mean I used to paint a lot and
The paintings I used to I do when I was a child
We're just somehow like what I do right now
I mean, they had so many details and they all had a third-person view
There were so many things happening a bunch of people doing something celebrating
I don't know attending an event and things like what happens in my art today
Got it. So there's a real cultural aspect to your artwork and you know, really you started very young
What kind of drew you to?
Pixel art right? I mean, maybe talk about that and I think you know, I love how you integrate, you know, Persian art
And old Persian artworks and scenes into your pixelated artworks and they all have kind of this communal feel to them
Right. So very much about community very much about culture
And then of course this, you know complex rendering with 8-bit pixel art, you know
Kind of sets your visuals apart
I guess in the way you tell your story
But maybe talk a little bit about how all of those elements like the technology, you know
And all of it comes together. What was the the driving factor behind that?
To talk about the reason I started the pixel art journey
We used to have a group of students at university
The students from art faculty and the engineering college
Used to create I mean develop some
Small and simple video games and I was part of that group then
When I was working on the final project
Of the university. I wanted to create a simple game as well
And I had always a great intention to Persian miniature
So I wanted to make a connection between these two. I mean a video game inspired by Persian miniature
so I found the pixel art as
As something which can match these two
Concepts with it with each other. So
Yeah, it started with that a simple game and then later I
Produced a short animated movie from all the materials I've worked on and
Got it. What a cool story
I think gaming has had such a huge influence on so many people right who grew up in the 90s and 2000s and
It's it's terrific to see that kind of return to what was you know
Very primordial in terms of people's experiences with their first game console with the first games etc
And how that sort of weaves a nice story into you know, how art's being created now
I think it's I think it's extremely cool and
Maybe you know this whole Persian art movement. I think it's I think there's something happening here, which I'm very excited about
I've seen what Orkin has done with his magic carpets right with the carpets as well as you know with
Some of the more advanced, you know AI
Infused models that he's been creating with Gans. I think it's very cool to see that influence now making its way into
You know the artistic movement
Tell me a little bit about what brought you into NFTs and digital art, right?
So it seems very logical based on what you've shared in terms of just how games influenced you in terms of just
Pixel art movement and then the cultural aspects with you know, Persia Persian miniatures if you will
But tell me tell me about digital art and you know, just getting on chain. What was the catalyst for you?
You know, there was a time in
216 when everyone was talking about the
crypto arts and NFTs and it was a war that I was
Just hearing around all day, but I had no idea what it is
and one day a friend of mine just pushed me to mint my first artwork and
That was the stars and I felt like
Okay, this is something new and everyone's just
Experiencing this and I just want to dive in and see what happens
I mean, I wanted to just experience and give give myself the opportunity to
test and see what happens and
later I I was you know, I mean I felt in love with the space since
It gave me so much freedom to share all the art I had stored on my laptop
That I was afraid to share
I mean because I thought maybe people just
Steal my art and I cannot take it back from them
So yeah, I mean the NFT space give me this freedom
to share what of whatever I work on and this is what
Kept me here for about three years. I think or more
Wow, that is awesome. That is great. Right? I mean like the aspects of provenance and
Proveable ownership and the fact that you were actually the creator of this art
I think that's something that people often forget, right?
I mean they view digital art and NFTs as
For the most part being another way of sharing their artwork with the world
but I think the thing that a lot of people lose is the fact that it
Proves without a question of doubt who the who the actual authentic creator is and of course in our space
Unfortunately, we have so many people who actually copy other people's work and then put it on chain
So it creates a cloud of confusion as well
But the actual source and root of what you just shared is the reason why I think many artists are in the space now
Which is which is really terrific and very cool
So I want to transition a little bit into some of your artworks, right?
I'm not gonna tease what you are creating for meme friends and and we'll do that a little bit later on
But there is a very unique aspect of what you have done for meme friends
But I see it in a lot of your other work as well, right? You have obviously humans
You have this cultural element that's represented in your work, right?
And you know, it's usually a gathering, you know
Maybe it's a feast or some kind of a celebration or a festival
But you have animals that feature prominently as well, right fish and dare I say peppers or frogs, right?
You know, there's a nice sort of intersection of all of these elements. What is it about?
you know animals and pets that inspire you and
Sort of form a very integral component of you know, the artworks that you create
humans life and it's not something
Share something from animals in my art
Since I'm just reflecting
And the routine life of people
So animals have to be there and
About but about the specific animals like fish
like fish because I was born in the I don't know if I pronounce the word right
Piscus, I don't know the months
Yeah, and I love the fish so I try to have it
Randomly in my art also about the pigeon
I like to you know reflect a peaceful
Atmosphere in my arts and I think we are done with all the bad news around ourselves
So I want to be cheerful when I'm in this space
so the pigeon is a sign of peace for me in my art and
Well pepper is is a part of I think
So we are here all the time in web tree
so pepper is something that we have to care about and
Yeah, I can make so many like jokes memes with Pepe. So this is something I've been working on too. I
Love that name a lot of people who come in right who are traditional artists or digital artists
They don't quite understand or get Pepe's, right?
And I think it's very interesting for artists to come in and then to embrace Pepe's right because it's it really is
Much at the heart of the entire digital art movement, right?
If you think about Matt Fury and and the positive messages that you know
He tries to spread with Pepe's and you think about what's happened with you know
The negative connotations with you know, people in fortune and elsewhere kind of creating their own narrative around Pepe's
I think it's just super positive to see artists come in and embrace it and become a part of the lore, right?
It's I think it's a very very positive element. Hey with that. I mean, I'm gonna actually hand it over to
Faded because I think he has a few questions as well
Over to you, man. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. This is all super interesting. This is my first conversation with her
So I'm very excited to learn more about her art
her inspirations and you guys touched upon a lot of different parts and traditions and
Persian culture is rich with literature and art traditions and she talked about it in the beginning the miniatures and
I love how I think pixel art is very effective in preserving the detail of miniatures
Yet. She also adds a playful element that you can see with the rare Pepe's and just to point the some attention to the
Let's call it the jumbotron or up top
I I have pinned some of her works the first one which we'll talk about in a little bit is magic of Shibuya
You know and that's her Genesis work on
Foundation so I think that's really interesting. We've talked about Pepe's she's also talked about Pepe
So that's the second pin is Pepe's Lake
Which I think is a really interesting and amazing usage of a Pepe with pixelated art
We have a couple other things up top and the last one is a Pepe related as well
But one of the things that I want to ask you about is we've talked about you talked about pigeons and animals and how
You try to use them in your art, but what about feelings and emotions? Is there any messages or?
Shared emotions that you try to convey in your work along with your pieces
The overall message I want to convey is
is to make a connection between
modern society modern people and
this kind of traditional painting
unknown to so many people around the world and is
So yeah, the reason I mixed I combined these pixel arts with Persian miniature was
to keep this tradition from fading away and
Also, yeah, as I mentioned I would love to reflect a playful and
Happy life, I mean without tensions
Experiencing in real life. I feel like I wanna
Have something unchained which is just positive. I
Love that yeah, and it's always good positivity can ring through in art as well
One of the things that I find very exciting about your art, and I really enjoy it
Is your infusion with music and do you commission your music?
You know can you talk a little bit more about that because I feel some of a some of your works also have parts of folk songs
And other Persian music and it really enhances and the versus the experience of the art
So can you tell us a little more about how you use music with your art?
You know I I had commissioned a three-minute music for my shorts animation
222 I think and I used some part of that for my
Affairs the NFTs has the music's composed
In collaboration with an artist you can see on my foundation
about other pieces I use some kind of folklore
randomly on internet maybe a rural
old man has played something and it was just
recorded by a mobile or something simple and
The notes are not perfectly composed, but I feel like that is something
That fits the atmosphere I have in my art this
Love it. Yeah, and everything I think the beauty is surrounded in the fringes of the imperfect imperfections
You know especially with art, so I love that look here as well
You know let's talk about your Genesis piece
NFT minted on foundation magic of Sabria Sabria, and I think I apologize
I'm not pronouncing that right the last word. It's the first pin tweet up top and
I love your use you always get into culture and
Tradition and this is more on the Japanese culture and the blend of tradition and modern culture
Can you share with us what inspires your piece because I think it's always a very emotional
Journey for an artist to put out their first piece on what they decide what to put out and how they decide to put it
Out so you know what was your inspirations behind this one specifically?
my NFT journey with the three pieces and I worked about Shibuya crossing and
that was a time where when I was
when I had some hesitation about sharing the
Because I was working on the animation at that time
Created for a competition in Shibuya crossing that
They wanted to they want they asked artists to create pixel art artworks
Inspired by Shibuya crossing and I created these three pieces and then when I joined the space I minted these
beside the Persian culture
I'm really in love with the forest culture in general and
worked about the Japanese culture and
Later, I worked on some other pieces too about
But yeah, this this is the Genesis
That's really great to learn and it is an amazing piece
I've watched it probably over 25 times since third she can introduce me to it
I just want to say I love it. Go ahead. Go ahead
I see you know, I was just gonna say I love the fact that it's in my good friend and
OG collector buddy Patty stashes collection because Patty is a great proponent of the arts as well
And I was thrilled that that's where it ended up
Yeah, that was like a dream having it just got the beat so soon after it was minted
I love it too. Yeah, and I love that Patty has it as well
I have a couple more questions and then we'll probably start, you know
Asking some of your collectors to come up if they do want to come and speak because I know a few people
I wanted to show up for you
They really appreciate your work and what you do in the space
But you know, one of the things that we definitely have to still touch on is
You know a lot of people it was it was a tough market in 2023
But you really shine through with a lot of your projects and a lot of things that you did you you're clearly a builder
Can you discuss some of the highlights for you? You did a lot of collabs you had your art was shown in Times Square and
You I know you've now kind of gone into exploring textiles with your sister as well
And you know give a shout out to her as well
So you've really been busy while other people, you know what while the market was down
And I think that's a true sign of a builder and someone that's going to be here for the long term
So do you want to touch on some of those 2023 highlights?
a busy year work for me. I
Mean, yeah, as you mentioned so many people just stopped working
having collabs on that year was
It was a shining point for me to keep moving and not to stop and not to get depressed
I had so many collaborations in that year like
Cannot remember what else
But yeah, I think all those collaborations are the key to expand the community and make friends and
staying keep working in this space
yeah, and recently me and I got a commission from a
To curate some artworks for
Yeah, one of them is just done with the help of my sister. No heat
I don't know if he she's here or not. I think yeah, she's some
busy with babies right now, so
Bed sheets and this is my first experience in having my art on some
Bed sheet to the NFTs. I mean the collector will receive a
nine piece bed sheet of that and
Yeah, we also had some collaborations with Mesa shout out to Mesa
That these collaborations were almost some mimetic ones
that it was all my son who encouraged me to do that and I would like to
Appreciate him for always pushing me forward
No, I love it that that's great and you know one of the collabs that I definitely would love to talk about is
You mentioned a lot of them as the deck of one and I know we have problem the
Speaker or the audience now too. So, you know brought, you know
do you have any other questions because I'm kind of
I'm really excited to get to some of the people that have
Requested to come up and speak to her and but I want to throw it to you first
No, no, you know, I think you know, obviously we'll end with sharing kind of the piece that
Created for meme friends, which I think is very cool
But I think I think I'm pretty good. Let's bring folks up and you know, have them have them vibe with Naimis
Yeah, no, I invited them up. So, you know while they come up. I also do want to say that yeah
Your deck of collab was really great
I'm gonna pin that to the top as well as we speak and one of the things about space is I always have to
Get out of the space to go to the pinning of the top and stuff like that
So I'm gonna do that as well people just bear with me and I really love this collab as well
I thought it was really great. And you really did a you know, you're really busy in 2023, which I love to see from artists and
Yeah, thanks to Proven for all the first I'm having this decal collaboration
You know when you see a warm welcome from the
from someone who is requesting
It just inspires you more and more to work
Perfectly on the piece and it was just the Proven doing that
That's great and and we have one of your collectors up here
We brought them up and I apologize if I pronounce it correctly. We just found out earlier
I'm not the best with names and brought as much better but born
Always sore. Sorry if I pronounced it. I appreciate you coming up, man
I hope you're having a great day GM GM and yeah
I my first question is you know as a collector what attracted you to
Naimis work originally right off the bat and you know, what you know, yeah, basically what attracted you to her work
GM GM now, yeah, actually pronounce it perfectly
Well, I mean first of all, I'm Iranian too
So, you know name it as like one of the most successful, you know, Iranian artists in this space that have always been
you know someone who I was a
miter than I kind of looked up to in this space, you know in terms of artists and
When she started like doing all these
Collaborations and all the cool stuff like in the actual
global victory community was amazing because one of the most like crucial problems with
Iranian artists usually have in the space is that because of probably language barriers, they often can't
integrate their work into like, you know, the global community of F3 and name it kind of broke through that barrier and
Did all of these collaborations with you know, almost all the big name brands like, you know
Deca on cyber om, you know memes all of that and it was always amazing and I remember that
We once recorded the podcast together in Farsi and we talked about I had never talked about
Actually, and it was amazing to you know
know about her journey and know how there aren't actually, you know came to just become one of the like probably the most recognizable
Artists in the space and one of the things that they just wanted to mention which I always kind of tell her to talk about
When she you know hosts any sort of spaces is that she in the podcast that we recorded she
mentioned something about
how she always thought that these Iranian like
Traditional miniature paintings were actually quite big
But when she went into a museum and saw them in person she realized that they're actually
very very small they're the size of the palm of your hand and
merged with how pixels are basically it's a smallest, you know aspect of any digital painting especially with not paintings
That was one of the things that kind of like fuse these two together because miniature paintings in and the actual ones
Are very small and pixels are the smallest part of you know
Digital paintings and these two kind of fused together perfectly in that regard and that was very cool
And that's one of the things I always tell her to not talk about Delta what that that's very cool. And I think that
That kind of makes her work
Suitable for you know, the digital world because one of the most
controversial aspects of digital art is that usually
traditional art people say that this kind of
Size agnostic aspect of digital works makes them kind of you know
Not that good or not real art because you don't know what size you should look them look at them
Considering how it should be actually looked at in the small size of probably in the smartphone makes them the perfect
Size to be consumed digitally, especially considering how to be probably usually look at them through our phones
So yeah, that was one of the cool aspects of her work that I just wanted to mention here. Thank you
Thank you very much for coming up and I think you bring up some really great points and some really great detailed points about her art
And how it's gonna be displayed and you know, what really brings it to light and lets it shine and by the way
Also great to meet you. We've been interacting on the timeline too. So this is our first time chatting
So nice to meet you as well. But yeah, no, that's really great
And you know since we also have you know, we don't have anyone else coming up
I did kind of tease the DECA collab as well
I pinned it up to the top as well and and would you like to talk a little bit about the DECA collab that you
Most recently did because I think it's really special and people need to hear about that as well
Sorry, are you asking this from burners or me and I confused you're the only one here who actually did a DECA collab name
about the DECA collab I I
Wanted to just you know use these
to and add some life to these
converted some part of it to
River somehow some parts converted to
one part converted to a part of a building and
at at the bottom of the artwork
ropes that the lady is waving a carpet with and
Yeah, playing with these lines was a new experience and
Yeah, I try to add the Pepe's I mean not know they're not Pepe I think they are frogs
Just jumping from lines to each other and make a connection between these
Yeah, the whole idea was like that I think I
Love it. Yeah, that's great
And so right now you know
I'll throw it to Barat for a little bit because I know we can talk about maybe teasing the piece a little bit or
Doing something but brought you have any questions or follow-up things. Yeah, no, you know
I think I think we should put the piece up if you have it faded, but
Naimi it would be great for you to tell us a little bit about Yalda nights, right the Shabe Yalda and
explain what Yalda is and the significance to Persian culture, right?
I think it's very cool and very neat and you know
It's so perfectly mimetic to what you described as you know
Kind of what drives you from an art perspective and then it integrates all of the things that we've talked about over the course of the
last 30 minutes, right and I think that's what's really, you know, interesting and incredible about the piece itself, but
Yeah faded if you if you can pop that up and then
Naimi if you can just tell us a little bit more about the inspiration behind it and I love how it fuses
You know the music that faded brought up right the compositions the you know Pepe, right?
I don't want to tease too far ahead and just the cultural zeitgeist right that just that that celebration that event
And that night right maybe talk about that a little bit and before she gets started
I'm just gonna do a little digging so be up in about a minute and we're just gonna show the freeze frame
So you can't get the visual a music effect, but you'll definitely see everything that we're talked about
So as she talks about I'll be paying it up. Sorry to interrupt go ahead
Yeah, the yellow night, oh first of all I'm bored I think you are Persian you you pronounce all the Persian words perfectly
Yeah, the yellow night is the last night of autumn and
Persian we celebrate that night until around morning and
people just gather with their families and friends and
food and fruit that people eat in that night like pomegranate and watermelon and
Yeah, one of the traditions that
Divination, I don't know if I pronounced that correct
divination that and all the I mean usually and all the
Person in the gathering opens up randomly a page of
the poetry book by office who is the 14th century Persian poets and
It's like a fortune-telling
Tradition and people believe that the the random
Just telling their future at least for the next year
There is a kind of traditional furniture
Which is called the corsy and
It's a kind of table which has a heater
copy on sorry on it that people sit around to stay warm and
Since the night is a cold night
There used to be a corsy all the time in the yaldo night
this is all about the yaldo night and
And yeah, I try to reflect all the details in the piece. I
Love it. I may I love how you explained it too, right because I think it's it's
you know a lot of different cultures have kind of a similar kind of a
gathering if you will and
I think it's really cool how you took the you know miniature you made it into a you know
Pixelated scene and then you brought all of these fun
animated elements into it like that television with the frog and I can't wait for everybody to see this right and
It's really cool and the composition that goes behind it. It just ties everything together, right? Super interesting super fun and
Naimi, I just want to say greatly appreciate you coming and spending time with us great
greatly appreciate you participating in meme friends and
you know, we learned so much about you today and your backstory and you know
Wish you the best of luck and you know, we look forward to you know, the continued collaboration but faded
I'll pass it over to you if there any final parting questions here or thoughts, but Naimi will give you the last word as well
Yeah, no, once again, it's it's the last two pin things that have been sweets to the top
The second to last one is y'all denied the overall piece that everyone can kind of see and it's you know
In its entirety and then I did a couple little details to kind of really show what she did
I pinned up the guy with the frog and the television as well as a lot of the other
Teapot and stuff like that. So a lot of cultural position
So people really want to take a look at some of the detail as well as the total piece
You can see it up top. And yeah, no, I have no other further questions
It's really been great meeting you and what brought said we would love to give you the final word
Definitely. Tell us what you have coming up in the future anything
That's really important to you and you know, because we do want to give you a platform to discuss that stuff as well
So we'll let you close it out with that
I'm planning. I mean me and my sister are planning to start
Which will be called no no a
Combination of my name and my sister's name name and not heat
So it will be all I mean pixels and things everything with pixels
Yeah, at the end. I want to highly appreciate
All of you borrowed faded and power for taking the time and organizing all the things
Eric and mason for helping me in creating and a
Video about my art. I think it will be shared later
They they take a lot of time to do that and I really appreciate it and
Yeah, thank you to everyone who joined and listened. I hope we can meet again soon
Thank you everybody for for joining us today