episode seven | mehdi darvishi

Published 6 feb 2019

Miranda Metcalf  Hello print friends, and welcome to the seventh episode of Pine Copper Lime (Hello, Print Friend), the internet's number one printmaking podcast. I'm your host, Miranda Metcalf. I release an episode every two weeks, and on the off weeks, I publish an article on the Pine Copper Lime website, featuring images and maybe a bit more information about the artist I'm going to interview. If you want to get in touch, Pine Copper Lime (Hello, Print Friend) can be found on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and helloprintfriend.com. And don't forget, I'll be at the SCGI conference in March this year at the vendor fair, so make sure to come by, say hello, and get some merch. This week, my guest is Medhi Darvishi, a self taught mezzotint artist from Iran. With Medhi, I did something I've never done before on this podcast. I'd actually never spoken to him until we sat down for this interview. I knew his work from the world of contemporary printmaking, and his awesome Instagram game, but I had no idea what he was like in real life. And I was in for an incredibly pleasant surprise. Not only is he a fascinating person who is extremely thoughtful and articulate about his own work, but he has a voice made for podcasting. This episode also has a slightly different feel than the ones I've published before. It's a bit slower, more contemplative, and we talk about death. We actually talk about death a lot. So you'll find I'm kind of low energy in this one, but Medhi has this incredible way of speaking that just blossoms into poetry. And it just kind of put me on my best behavior. Maybe like talking to a professor, or an aunt who works for the symphony or something. But anyway, get comfy, and get ready to get down with the darkness with Medhi Darvishi. Hey, Medhi, how's it going? 

Medhi Darvishi  Hey, good. How are you? 

Miranda Metcalf  Good. Good. Thanks for sitting down and having a chat with me today. 

Medhi Darvishi  Great. 

Miranda Metcalf  So I'm familiar with you from seeing your work online and then also having the pleasure of seeing it in person at the International Mezzotint Festival in Yekaterinburg, I guess last year. 

Medhi Darvishi  Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was last year. Yeah, it's just a pleasure for me. 

Miranda Metcalf  Would you mind introducing yourself a little bit to our listeners?

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah. My name is Medhi Darvishi. I was born in Iran in a small city five hours from Tehran named Dorud. I first moved to Tehran to study painting at University of Tehran Faculty of Fine Arts. We don't have printmaking as a separate major in the University, so I just passed a course of printmaking with a professional printmaker named Mehrdad Khataei. And it was the beginning of my journey in printmaking, about 10 years ago.

Miranda Metcalf  You said you were growing up in a small town, how did you come to find art making? Did it have a strong artistic presence?

Medhi Darvishi  To be honest, we didn't have any artistic space in our city. But I was lucky enough to see an artist and actually an art teacher who has studied in Tehran, and I just know the art history, and especially how to read a book of art history. And it was just the beginning of my interest to art. In my hometown, there was no exhibition. We just had the chance to see some books in the library of my friend's house.

Miranda Metcalf  So at that point, were you immediately taken and decided that you wanted to go be an artist?

Medhi Darvishi  Yes, but maybe we should go back, maybe a few more years. I used to paint, I used to copy charicatures and some paintings from the newspapers. And it was one of the most interesting things for me, to do paintings with colored pencils without having any knowledge. And, you know, it was kind of fun for me. But when I grew up, and it was the time to choose my major, my education major, I just decided that I want to study it. We didn't have it in school, it was just graphic design, but we had drawing classes, and I could draw and I found it very interesting, I didn't want to continue graphic design. And in that school, I met that teacher, and he introduced me to some useful books and some painters from the art history. And I just began from seeing books and studying the art history.

Miranda Metcalf  Do you think that that ended up affecting the work that you make now? Because a lot of it has kind of classical elements in it. So, for instance, like your use of drapery.

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah, yeah, you're definitely right. I always feel like I have some great masters through the art history. I used to copy many paintings through the art history, just to learn how to make a composition, how to mix colors, and everything. I believe that my only master has been the art history masters.

Miranda Metcalf  And so is that the greats like Michelangelo, Leonardo, or do you have particular favorites beyond that?

Medhi Darvishi  I love all the art history masters actually, but yes, I love Da Vinci, Michelangelo, any of the classic masters, and nowadays, painters. I can say that one of the most favorite painters, for me, is Francis Bacon or Lucian Freud.

Miranda Metcalf  You were talking about how you started painting and, it sounds like, were self taught to a certain extent before University. And you were looking at painters and you were painting, how did you come to printmaking?

Medhi Darvishi  I can give an example from my childhood, not that childhood, well, I wasn't a student, and it was just the beginning of my education. I was really interested in copying very realistic paintings, because I like those details. And after that, when I knew art history masters, I used to try to do paintings like them. So these details have been always interesting for me, from the beginning till now. And when I started printmaking, the first technique I learned was etching. And I should just do some drawings with a very tiny needle. And I found it very interesting. It was just interesting for me to have that focus on a very small piece of copper. 

Miranda Metcalf  And so you were introduced to printmaking at University, then? 

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah, as I told you, we don't have printmaking as a separate major in the universities in Iran, and I was lucky because we just have one course of printmaking as part of a painting BFA. And this course was with a very professional printmaker named Mehrdad Khataei. I don't know if you know his works or not, but you might have seen his works in Russia.

Miranda Metcalf  Yeah, I don't recognize the name, but I bet seeing it written, I may do a little better. So what about your family? Were they artistic? Or were they really supportive in your pursuits?

Medhi Darvishi  None of them are artists. And, you know, for them, all of them have particular jobs, getting paid every month. Being an artist is not a very interesting thing, you know, especially for me, because I don't have any side job. And my life has so many ups and downs. Sometimes I earn good money and sometimes I don't have any money. I love that, because it makes me feel alive. But it's not an interesting thing for my family. 

Miranda Metcalf  I think that that's a common thing, that, you know, a lot of people, they just have that idea that, you know, you'll get a job, and you'll work that job for 30 years, until you can't work it anymore. And you get that paycheck every two weeks, and it'll be fine. 

Medhi Darvishi  I've never had any support from my family, actually. And I didn't want that support from my family, because I chose this path this way. And I just want to do my best for it. Fortunately, I've received very good results so far. I don't know what's going to happen later. But until now, I'm very satisfied by my choice.

Miranda Metcalf  So you talked a bit about finding etching and how that preciseness appealed to you, which I could definitely see if you were particularly interested in the classics and the classical greats, you know, that preciseness was there. How did you come to mezzotint?

Medhi Darvishi  When I learned how to make an etching, and I used to use it... for the first time, I used to use it to copy photography. And the texture was kind of interesting for me, because I could make something very close to a photograph, in case of texture, I mean. Then I was thinking maybe I could use a white ink on a black paper. And it made it more interesting for me. Because at the same time, I just started working on a series with the main theme of death. And I see that subject as a really dark thing. And it could make more sense when I was printing with white ink on a black paper, bringing something out from a dark paper. The first time that I saw a mezzotint, I just - I had heard about it, but I didn't know what was the mezzotint technique. I think it was the Mezzotint Festival, almost six years ago, I think. I saw their page on Facebook. I found the works very interesting. And just, you know, nobody knows what is mezzotint in Iran. And I just learned it from YouTube. As you might know, Guy Langevin. 

Miranda Metcalf  I don't think so. 

Medhi Darvishi  I'm sure you do, because he's a really great master of mezzotints. Yeah, and it was a French pronunciation. His name in English would be Guy Langevin. 

Miranda Metcalf  Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Had to really Anglophile that one for me. 

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah. And he has a video, instructional video, on YouTube. And that was my only source of learning mezzotints.

Miranda Metcalf  That's amazing. And do you think that growing up, teaching yourself from books helped prepare you for learning mezzotints from YouTube?

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah, yeah, it was the same thing for everything that I have through my life. I learned how to play guitar only on my own and reading some books. It was maybe 15 years ago. 

Miranda Metcalf  Do you still play guitar? 

Medhi Darvishi  No, it's 10 years and I'm not playing. Because when I came to Tehran to study art, I see that I need to be so serious in it if I wanted to be a successful person without having support from anybody. So I just had to spend all my time on doing drawings, paintings, and besides that, I started printmaking. And nowadays, I have all my focus on mezzotint.

Miranda Metcalf  And are you pretty much just working with the black paper and the white ink?

Medhi Darvishi  No, not for now. Because when I learned mezzotints, I see that this is the best result that I want from that image. You know, I had something in my mind. I used to paint it, make some drawings, but none of the results were satisfying for me. But with mezzotints I found it really perfect, at least for myself. 

Miranda Metcalf  You know, your work that I'm the most familiar with is the work, as you mentioned, dealing with death. And, you know, you create these really haunting, very still, very beautiful images of corpses under white sheets. And it's such a wonderful use of the mezzotint technique. Because, yeah, they're often in dark rooms. And so that effect that mezzotint has of bringing the light from the dark, as you said, is really effective for what you create. 

Medhi Darvishi  Thank you. You know, during the last few years that I've been working very hard on mezzotint, you know, it's just only four years that I'm working on mezzotint. And in the first year, I was one of the finalists for Mezzotint Festival in Russia. And in the third year as well, I was one of the three finalists for the grand prize as you were one of the jury members, I think. So I've been just working hard. But simultaneously, I was thinking, why I should create an image with a technique that I can also make it with another technique very easy, and in a very short time, like charcoal or conte could definitely make the same [image]. And this is a problem that I always have with so many of the, you know, mezzotints. For me, printmaking is not just technique. You should use that technique in a correct way. And through the time that I was working, I wasn't satisfied. Because if I can make it really easy with the charcoal, why should I make a mezzotint? Just for having some editions? Is that a good reason? At least for me, because I could make a drawing and then print it many times with a computer, if I just want those copies. But in the last few works that I've made, those triptychs and quadriptychs -

Miranda Metcalf  Yeah, where you're reworking the plate, right?

Medhi Darvishi  Exactly. Yes. Killing the plate, as well as the character and everything. And this process is something that, I think it's not possible to do it with any other drawing techniques. What do you think?

Miranda Metcalf  I agree, I do. I mean, how could you not? But yeah, I think that's one of the reasons that your work, theoretically, I guess, stands out, or the practice stands out. Because they're beautifully rendered images. But as you know, there's a lot of mezzotint artists who can just make a really realistic image, as you said, it's part of mezzotint's appeal and what its original use was, was to be reproduction, because it has that quality. So your images are beautifully rendered. And then the subject matter is really striking. But on top of that, the way you rework the plate and have that side of it, that lines up with the content, is a really nice use of it.

Medhi Darvishi  Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure to hearing that. It's a nice thing to hearing that. And, you know, I always consider the technique as an alphabet. Everybody can know that alphabet. But only a few people can write a poem with that alphabet. 

Miranda Metcalf  That's lovely. I really like that. 

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah, that's what I, I really believe in it. I was thinking maybe I shouldn't work mezzotint anymore.

Miranda Metcalf  Please don't. We like you doing mezzotints. 

Medhi Darvishi  Thank you. 

Miranda Metcalf  Well, I noticed that in your artist statement, you've got at least a couple of quotes from poets and then you bring it up here as well. Is poetry something that inspires you?

Medhi Darvishi  Yes, I can say that poetry is part of my life. Because I grew up in Iran, which has a really good history in poetry. And also, nothing can touch me as a poem. And I really have been inspired by Ahmad Shamlou, the person that I mentioned his name in my statement, some of his poems have really inspired me. And sometimes I feel like, oh, how close we are for, for the quadriptych work, the one that is carrying a frame crossing in front of a graveyard. One day, I was walking in a library, and accidentally I opened a poem book. And I just found a poem very, very haunting. And I used it just for the title of that work. It says, 'I should cry so bitterly. Because until 100 years later, no one of the people of my city will be alive.' And this is something which is happening through that four stages work. The city's being disappeared, the graves are getting filled, the main character is gone, and the plate is dead as well.

Miranda Metcalf  Yeah. It's, you know, what it reminds me of, and what your work reminds me of more generally is that, you know, those ideas that we learn when we're first learning about death, as children, and that, as you say, in 100 years, everyone I know will be dead. And when you first learn it, it's so disturbing to you as a child. And then you grow up, and you get coping mechanisms, and you learn how to not think about it, or you learn how to justify it, or -

Medhi Darvishi   You accept it as part of the life. 

Miranda Metcalf  Yeah, you accept it. But I like how your work doesn't shy away from it, it kind of brings, or at least for me, personally, it brings me back to remembering what it felt like when you first learn those things about the facts of the world.

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah, exactly. And, you know, when you know that this is the most definite thing which is happening in every human being's life... for me, it wasn't disappointing, it wasn't something which makes me sad, because it's for everybody. There is no excuse for anybody, you know. The only thing that makes it much more important for me is that when you consider that as a goal, as something like a destination, you will try to make the way to that destination as perfect as possible. You know, I grew up in a, not a poor family, but not a rich family, something average. They didn't have the power to support me, to catch all my dreams. But I believe that I'm catching all my dreams with my work. You know, as an Iranian, it's really difficult to travel to the other countries. It's very difficult. Sometimes it's kind of impossible. I know some billionaires that couldn't have received a visa with all those monies. So it's not just about the money.

Miranda Metcalf  And your art and your practice are opening the doors that a billion dollars couldn't.

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah. And when I was working on my works, when I was at the beginning, I didn't even think about these things that are happening today. You know, when I was making my works, every gallerist in Iran keep telling me that, 'Oh, don't do that. That's a bitter subject,' or 'No, nobody wants to buy them.' Today I'm selling well, I didn't expect these things were going to happen. But I just loved the work that I was doing. And I just go for it. Went for it. Yeah.

Miranda Metcalf  Yeah, well, I think that during my time in commercial galleries and being that translator or that conduit between artist and purchaser, but also just my experience in life, is that even if people don't realize it consciously, the favorite thing of everyone is something that's genuine and a genuine passion. And whenever anyone tried to make work, because they thought, this is what sells, it's so removed. You know, there's like a stink on it then. 

Medhi Darvishi  You're right. And sometimes, you can easily create some works for sale, and you can sell it. But it goes nowhere. You just come as a wave. You go up, and then falls down and will get disappeared.

Miranda Metcalf  Yeah, I guess that that is more accurate. Because it's, you know, you can make an abstracted landscape, and someone will buy it. But, yeah, and, you know, no shade to abstracted landscapes. I've seen some lovely abstracted landscapes. But, yeah, as you say, if it's done in a calculated way, it's, you know, there's only going to be a handful of people who want that. And then when it's gone, there's no evolution. There's nothing to grow into.

Medhi Darvishi  Nothing. Yeah. Just a few amount of money that you're gonna spend in a few days. And that's it. It's like a routine job. Your job is doing paintings, beautiful paintings and to sell them like someone who's baking bread.

Miranda Metcalf  So you mentioned that, when you were first starting, you had gallerists maybe suggesting that you shy away from dark subjects.

Medhi Darvishi  Many times, yeah. 

Miranda Metcalf  So early on, were you working on death as well? Has this been a really consistent theme for you?

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah, it was, exactly. The first important subject that I've worked on during the last maybe eight or nine years. I had many different works beside them. But it has been the most important theme and subject in my works.

Miranda Metcalf  And I could see why people would respond to it. And, you know, having memento mori is a long, long tradition in the arts. Going back to the 1400s, at least in European art history, probably older in other places, and to have it done in in a beautiful way, that's even better, because part of one of the themes of the messages around the world is that to remain happy, you have to remember that this is temporary. 

Medhi Darvishi  Yes. Exactly. 

Miranda Metcalf  And what we choose matters because we die. Choices we make matter. And what we choose to do with our time here matters, because it ends.

Medhi Darvishi  Yes, exactly. That's what I believe in.

Miranda Metcalf  So do you think that you'll stay with the theme? Is this something that you feel like you still have a lot more to explore in?

Medhi Darvishi  I never know. This is the work that that demands me, rules me to do something. Asks me to do something. And I never know what's going to happen with the next work. The only thing that I'm not satisfied with in mezzotint is that it takes a long time. For that triptych that you saw in Russia, it took me a year. And that's why I have written down my name on one of that gravestones with the date of 2017. I penetrate my - the year of 2017 into that work. You know I have many more ideas. And fortunately or not, I'm a perfectionist, I never get satisfied with the work. And this is why I always make the same image many times in different sizes, to achieve the best result out of it.

Miranda Metcalf  That's definitely, I think, something that goes hand in hand with being very interested and very good at mezzotint, is a personality that likes perfection.

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah, yeah, exactly. And, you know, the only bad thing about this timing is that I have so many ideas. I have so many sketches. But I never find enough time to make all of them. It just may be seven years that I'm focused on printmaking. But I can only choose maybe five, less than 10 of my works. You know, it's a really few works for eight years.

Miranda Metcalf  And I assume you rock all the plates yourself? 

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah, yeah, I always rock my own plates. And when I go to a residency, I take a rocked plate with me to have the most focus only on scraping, burnishing, drawing, and printing. And for the piece that I sent you, it's a big piece, at least for mezzotint. And I'm going to keep working on the same plate. So it's going to be a huge work. Maybe 70 centimeter by four meters. With the quadriptych. Yeah, I almost rocked the plate in six weeks. And I've been here working on it for six weeks, nine to nine everyday, even on holidays and weekends. Yeah, and I'm not still satisfied as some parts of the works are unfinished. Needs maybe two more weeks to make it finished, to make the editions. Then I can go to scraping more for the second stage. And I'm going to make it in China Printmaking Museum in less than a month. Yeah.

Miranda Metcalf  So when you work, do you work from photographs or drawings that you've done or combination? What's your process like?

Medhi Darvishi  It's almost a combination. I always start from drawing. And when I get the final result of the composition, I make it in real life, I make it as a stage, I make photographs, then print the photographs and start painting on them to make a final source for my image that I'm going to work on a plate. And during the process, when I feel like I should change something, I do. For example, the last work that I've done here, I mixed all of the clouds from the different countries that I've been before. And when I was working on the plate, suddenly, I saw some clouds crossing in front of the window of my workshop, and just catched some of them exactly, directly, I drew them on the plate. And I believe that that part is one of the best parts of my work.

Miranda Metcalf  I love that. That it's such a living process, then, for you. 

Medhi Darvishi  Yeah, yeah, it is. 

Miranda Metcalf  Well, would you mind telling all of my listeners where they can find out more about you and see your work? Any kind of website or social media?

Medhi Darvishi  Of course. I'm so active on Instagram, the same as my name: @mehdidarvishistudio, and also, I have a Facebook page. I'm just thinking about having a website, but I haven't done anything yet.

Miranda Metcalf  Yeah, that's a whole other thing, really. Well, I'll definitely put a link to everything in the show notes for this. And thank you so much for speaking with me. This was great, to talk prints and life and death.

Medhi Darvishi  Thank you, it was a pleasure hearing your sound. And I wish we will meet somewhere, it doesn't matter where. Yeah, it's the print world. And it's very small. 

Miranda Metcalf  Yeah, that's one of the great things about it, for sure. And that's our show for this week. Thanks so much everyone for tuning in. Anything of interest you can find in the show notes. And if you can't find it there, go ahead and drop me a line at miranda@helloprintfriend.com and I'll track it down for you. This episode, like all episodes, was written and produced by me, Miranda Metcalf, with editing help from Timothy Pauszek and music by Joshua Weber. I'll see you in two weeks.