Today we’d like to introduce you to Nairi Gharibian.
Nairi, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’m an Armenian American Product Designer and Illustrator working in Los Angeles. I earned my Bachelor of Science in Product Design from Art Center College of Design. I’ve worked for companies such as Disney and Nike designing footwear. I’ve spent the last decade designing baby products for both Munchkin, Inc and more recently for Fridababy, LLC.
In my spare time, I do culturally inspired illustrations under the Nairi Diary line. The artwork I do now is to help me realign with my Armenian culture and to connect with the diaspora who are, also, looking to find roots back to their culture.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My artwork is in the children’s book illustration realm of work. I love creating artwork that makes the viewer laugh and smile.
I recently started an Armenian Alphabet Challenge (39 Days of Aybuben) on Instagram (inspired by the 36 Days of Type Challenge). I started it to help those in the diaspora learn the Armenian Alphabet and, also, to spread awareness of my culture and build our community!
Each illustration has a letter and word explanation. I explain phonetically how to say the word using similar word sounds in English. This way someone who knows English can have easy access to learning our rich Armenian language (from 405 AD) – whenever, wherever they want and they can share it! What gives me purpose are the many private messages of thanks from both Armenians who never learned the language and are relieved to have found an easy method and but, also, messages of excitement from other parts of the world like Brazil, Hungary, Russia, Indonesia and Finland!
Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
Social media has made it easy to reach and find amazing talent/artists. It has, also, made it easier to find opportunities with fairs like “Renegade” or “Jackalope” to get our work out there in our local areas to connect with our communities.
However, because of Instagram’s success, I feel like the web is now flooded with talent and harder to find and connect with local artists.
Communities/cities can help artists by recognizing and sharing local talent. My 39 days of Aybuben challenge proved that there is a multitude of new generations in the Armenian diaspora that are actively seeking ways to connect themselves and their families (young children) to others and the culture. However, the methods that are currently available seem intimidating (i.e. private schools/lessons) and not convenient. I received dozens of messages of thanks that read “thank you for making learning Armenian easy for myself, for my kids, and even my non-Armenian spouse!” Haha. It was very encouraging to know the interest is definitely out there.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Here are the locations that people can see and support my work:
Website: www.nairidiary.com
IG: www.instagram.com/nairi_diary
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NairiDiary
Photo/Art Credit: Nairi Gharibian / Nairi Diary Illustrations
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nairidiary.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/nairi_diary
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NairiDiary
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NairiDiary
Image Credit:
Nairi Gharibian
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