Neda Tanhayee Moghadam is a cartoonist, graphic designer, caricaturist, illustrator, character designer, writer and animation director, and was born in 1986 in Iran. She has an AD in computer and a BA in cultural affairs management. She has worked on painting, graphics, illustration, volume, cartoons and animation, writing and animation directing, cubism, but she likes cartoon more.
She began her professional works in 2003.
Till now Tanhayee Moghadam has awarded in several national and international cartoon festivals, including: the first Visual Arts International Festival of Fajr, Syria, Ukraine and Brazil, Guangxi of China, Lifetime Achievement Award of Argentina ‘Tabio PremioVOSTFUNDACION’, the 7th International Biennial of Jiazing Cartoon of China and the 23rd International Biennial, Gabrovo in Bulgaria, and the first Golden Panda Festival. Her artworks have also been published in the catalogs of festivals in Croatia, Poland, South Korea, Serbia, Portugal, Tatarstan, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Turkey and Syria. In addition, she has won awards in the Kharazmi Festival and several visual arts national festivals.
She has held 4 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 65 group exhibitions in the field of visual arts, she was a jury member of several national and international festivals in the field of visual arts and cartoons, including the selection committee of national press festivals, National Unity and Arrogant Regime, defense Missile, Al-Zahra Universities Festival, Anti-Arrogance in Iran and International Festival of Morocco.
Tanhayee Moghaddam is a co-founder of Cartoonists Association of Azarbaijan, the head of Basiji’s Cartoon Association, and a member of the Azarbaijan’s Elite Foundation and the Northwest Elite Center of Shahid Fahmideh, and she was a board member of Cartoonists Association of Tabriz for 5 years.
Here is our interview with Neda Moghadam:
What was your first caricature?
My father.
When did you start your career professionally?
Since 2001.
What was your first work?
My first work was a painting, but if you mean creating and selling at a professional level, I created a work called "The Song of Love" and sent it to the Kharazmi Festival, which was a combination of Persian Miniature, cubism, painting to show a 7000- year of Iranian art, it received the third prize and was purchased by the General Directorate of Culture of East Azerbaijan Province.
the beneath work is "the song of love"
What was your first award?
I got my first prize in 2002 in the national youth festival, in the painting section.
And the last one?
The fifth-place winner of the International Cartoon Festival, Malaysia ,2021
How do you come to a new idea?
Ideas come to my mind between tasks, during washing dishes and cooking and walking, and even during breakups.
What do you think about the inevitable similarities between artists’ works?
It is an issue that certainly happens, and we cannot avoid it. But juries of festivals and competitions, should be so meticulous about it. An international archive can be helpful.
What do you think of plagiarism?
In my opinion there is no difference between steel and plagiarism, all sorts of it are misdeed.
Who do you think is the best Iranian cartoonist?
A person who always tries to portray the facts from different and deeper aspects in any situation, without dependence. In my opinion, everyone depicts a beautiful and different side of art and leaves a different and special effects on the audiences.
Thus, the masters of each field are among the best including the late Kambiz Darbakhsh, Massoud Shojaei Tabatabai, Javad Alizad and Bahman Abdi, etc. But I remember exactly before entering the festivals, I loved the powerful lines used by Shojaei Tabatabai.
And the international cartoonist?
I have the same idea for the foreign cartoonists too.
The best cartoon you've ever seen?
The cartoon that I have seen 18 years ago, the theme was “a mother’s love”, in which a poor mother gave loaves of bread to her hungry children, but in order to give them enough, she added pieces of herself and smiled. It affects me even now.
How much do you spend on a work?
Depends on artwork, style and final output. Cartoon is not an expensive art, but it costs millions to create an animation.
What tools and techniques do you utilize?
Digital and manual creation and I use a combination of watercolors and colored pencil.
Which software?
Photoshop
What do you think about caricature in the world?
Caricature is one of the flexible, practical and effective art fields that can be created and mediated in a short time. And as it is always challenging, it has always been growing.
Have you ever had problem with your cartoons?
I had no problem with my own cartoons, but there were others who had problems with my cartoons’ characters.
Yes, it was about 1999, when I and my family were threatened to death by dogmatic unknown people for drawing a Sattar Khan’s caricature!
Have you ever created a cartoon off the cuff?
why not.
When was your last exhibition?
Renotex exhibition at the Tabriz International Exhibition.
Who is your favorite artist?
"Walt Disney", who is alive in my heart.
What was the last book you have read?
A book by Thomas E. Harris.
Do you think humor is teachable?
In my opinion, it is an innate talent, but in order to become a professional, one have to educate to understand deep and glorious humor.
What was your last cartoon?
Violence against women
What is your opinion about Irancartoon website?
Thank you very much to all the staffs who have kept the site up to date. It is one of the best sources of news and information for me and I have always suggested it to students.
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