We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Moti Tavassoli a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Moti, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
When I was 5 years old, I did a color pencil painting of a landscape, starting at the bottom with humans, animals and trees going about their lives, panning up to the sky where airplanes, paragliders and birds soared and panning yet further up to rockets, astronauts, planets, aliens and their babies. That was over 3 decades ago. That painting currently hangs on my parents’ living room wall. Neither of my parents have a background in visual art. Well at least not on the surface. My mom is a tailor, which I have come to realize is a gorgeous combination of engineering and artistic design. And my dad is an automobile engineer who did a semester of silkscreen printing and read a ton about art and philosophy. When my parents saw my artwork at 5 and witnessed how my mind imagined up this world and made it real with very intentional choices of characters, forms and colors, they built all that I needed to just make art. Whether that was working overtime to pay for teachers and supplies to driving me across town to classes, to sitting still for an hour or two so I could draw them. What they did right was fully standing behind me and propelling my passion and talent forward with all they had without influencing my choices or directing my path.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am an Iranian-American visual artist based in Los Angeles under the brand Moti Makes, as in Moti Makes ART! My work, from drawings, paintings and murals abstracts my intense feelings, positive or “negative” — I put negative in quotation marks because I think all emotions are useful and worth experiencing and exploring. From the bittersweet relief after a breakup and being an overthinker, to surrendering to uncertainty, and the joy of loving relationships, my pieces channel and transmute feelings into unique shapes, vibrant colors and intricate lines.
I began this style of work in 2017 as I was adjusting to a new a career after college. My education in architecture had taught me how to translate 3D forms into 2D imagery and my exposure to Islamic art had shown me the art of abstracting the world of botany into its beautiful essence. Pouring all of this into my art, the work intensified during the solitude of the pandemic and has not slowed through all the ups and downs since.
My art allows me to process my emotions in a visual and tangible way, making the act of creation and its subject matter a cathartic release.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
The romanticism of the starving artist is a lie.
My undergraduate degree was in architecture. It was an incredible time to develop critical thinking and creative problem solving skills. I had all the power to design the most beautiful, sculptural and innovative spaces. And knowing the few famous contemporary architects whose inspirational designs were getting built, you would think to yourself, “Hey, that can be me.” But when I graduated school and began working in an architecture office, I soon realized how much of architectural design, especially anything innovative, beautiful, and yes expensive is about marketing and selling your idea to those who will financially support it. My school didn’t offer that unit…
Granted I don’t know much about art school, but from speaking to my artist community, the business part of art is incredibly important for succeeding as a professional artist yet it’s not a priority for schools to teach it. I feel that there is a little bit of stigma around coupling something so material like money to something so spiritual like art. I couldn’t disagree more. Artists and all creative people spend so much money on supplies, teachers and studios to develop incredible skills that make our world beautiful. We should be guided, early on, on how to handle the business and marketing side of our work so we reap the benefits of it when we are alive. We all love Van Gogh’s work but his life was tragic.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Last year I sold an original art piece to a microbiologist. He fell in love with it the second he saw it because it reminded him of the world he sees under the microscope. When I drew that piece originally, I wanted to show the vastness of space and the interplay of galaxies. I love hearing how audiences interpret my art. In our interactions, they tell me what was brought up for them, what vague memories they recalled, what sensations they felt or simply how much joy they got from it. I share very openly about the backstory of all my pieces, how I see them so vividly in my head, and how I have a desire to express them in this visual way to process them. But one of the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is hearing my art reinterpreted and reflected back to me from a new perspective and a rich collection of experiences.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.saatchiart.com/motitavassoli
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/motimakes/