Speaker 1: Hi. This is Malayan Vervier and this is Kim Azzarelli.
Speaker 1: We are co authors of the book Fast Forward, How
Speaker 1: Women can Achieve Power and Purpose, And you're listening to
Speaker 1: Seneca's conversations on power and Purpose. Hey. Everyone, this is
Speaker 1: Kim Azarelli and I am so excited to be hosting
Speaker 1: this special edition Women Rule Web three. Now. The world
Speaker 1: of Web three is moving so fast from the metaverse
Speaker 1: to defy two NFTs. On this show, we'll break it
Speaker 1: down for you through interviews with incredible leaders, experts, and artists. Today,
Speaker 1: I'm speaking with the taco Is for Short. She's a
Speaker 1: twenty year old multimedia artist from the Bay Area creating
Speaker 1: visually vibrant works that seek to uplift the beauty of
Speaker 1: a black community and illustrate the black experience. Is one
Speaker 1: of the six amazing artists that we're featuring in the
Speaker 1: Seneca Women Equality Collection, a special NFT collection with nifty Gateway.
Speaker 1: I spoke to Is about her work. Here's what she
Speaker 1: had to say, Well, Is, thanks so much for joining us,
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for having me. Well, we absolutely
Speaker 1: love your work. We are so excited that you're going
Speaker 1: to be part of the Seneate woman a quality collection,
Speaker 1: and we'll get into the piece in a little bit,
Speaker 1: but first, you're certainly the youngest member of this collection,
Speaker 1: and your work is so incredible. When did you discover
Speaker 1: that you were an artist? Pretty much from a really
Speaker 1: young age, maybe around eleven or twelve. I've always just
Speaker 1: gravitated towards especially in school art classes, just because I
Speaker 1: felt like it was the one place where I could
Speaker 1: express myself in other ways that you know, you can't
Speaker 1: really do verbally. So yeah, I just sort of like
Speaker 1: built up upon that as the year has gone by,
Speaker 1: and you know, now we're here working together, and tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about your background. Are your parents artist?
Speaker 1: How did you get into this? So? My mother is
Speaker 1: a professional dancer. She's gotten to that point where like
Speaker 1: if you name a dance, she knows how to do it.
Speaker 1: So she knows salsa, she knows zoomba, she knows tap dancing,
Speaker 1: flamenco hula, she's a kuma hula, she knows she knows
Speaker 1: every single dance. So actually watching her teach and put
Speaker 1: together work, it took me on an artistic trip more musically,
Speaker 1: so I feel like I was able to travel the
Speaker 1: world with her. You know, while staying in one place.
Speaker 1: As for my dad, he now works in the wood business,
Speaker 1: but he's always had a really huge passion for art.
Speaker 1: It was just more of a hobby, so it was
Speaker 1: definitely something he kept on the backburner despite how good
Speaker 1: he was. But yeah, they've been really supportive. When did
Speaker 1: you start doing art generally? Um, I've literally been an
Speaker 1: artist my entire life, So I've been just like doodling,
Speaker 1: draw doing whatever I could throughout middle school, high school,
Speaker 1: and then of course when COVID hit, you know, we
Speaker 1: were all like bounced back to plan one essentially, and
Speaker 1: I decided to choose art. So you started really doing
Speaker 1: a lot of drawing and you got kind of more
Speaker 1: into your own artistic vision when you were young twelve
Speaker 1: thirteen years old and through your art classes. When did
Speaker 1: you get involved in digital art? And why? So? My
Speaker 1: aunt is she always valued making sure we all had
Speaker 1: updated technology. She felt like it was something that was
Speaker 1: really necessary, especially staying on top of the industry. So
Speaker 1: I was working with the pen and paper for years
Speaker 1: and years and years, and I was very comfortable with it.
Speaker 1: And then I she gifted me an iPad for my
Speaker 1: high school graduation, which was June twenty twenty. Oh wow.
Speaker 1: At first, I didn't really see it as an art object,
Speaker 1: even though that's what she got me, that's what she
Speaker 1: bought it for. But eventually, you know, when you're bored,
Speaker 1: you start going through the settings and playing with buttons,
Speaker 1: and then I found procreate, started praying with the buttons,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know what, I could see
Speaker 1: myself actually drawing with it, and discovering that I could
Speaker 1: make money from it became a whole completely different story.
Speaker 1: That was another roller coaster in itself. We want to
Speaker 1: hear about that. Tell us about that too. Well. I
Speaker 1: worked at a gift shop because we are in the
Speaker 1: Bay Area. Everyone loves postcards and you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I was laid off twice by the same company
Speaker 1: because of the COVID pandemic, and unfortunately, everyone at my
Speaker 1: location was laid off, including the people who had been
Speaker 1: there twenty fifteen years. So when I was laid off,
Speaker 1: I was back again at Square one and that was
Speaker 1: my third job. My first job was at Starbucks, my
Speaker 1: second was at Coles, and then I ended up working
Speaker 1: for the gift shop and I just decided I hated
Speaker 1: retail and the whole customer service thing. It was just
Speaker 1: I was good at it, but I didn't feel like
Speaker 1: that was my happy element. So in between that gap
Speaker 1: and I would say December of twenty twenty, I was
Speaker 1: a bit idle. I was also trying to finish high
Speaker 1: school during a pandemic, which was kind of stressful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my neighbor or like a door over my neighbor. He
Speaker 1: was a field hockey provider, so he made the sticks
Speaker 1: in the packs and the bags and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and his team that he was sponsoring was going to
Speaker 1: the Olympics that year in Tokyo, so he commissioned me
Speaker 1: to create, you know, a logo that was within the
Speaker 1: Tokyo's regulations and something that suited the company. So that
Speaker 1: was I don't know, my first project being for the
Speaker 1: Olympics was kind of crazy, I do. I don't think
Speaker 1: I really understood that in its entirety. I just thought
Speaker 1: it was cool, even though the limits were eventually canceled.
Speaker 1: That was my outlet to discovering that I really had
Speaker 1: a passion for designing on an iPad. And what I
Speaker 1: learned along the way from commissions is that you gain
Speaker 1: a lot of skills you didn't plan to because you
Speaker 1: have to get it done right. You know. It's so
Speaker 1: interesting too that what you're saying about how kind of
Speaker 1: what you don't expect you know, we don't what you
Speaker 1: don't expect to be the result becomes the result and
Speaker 1: how you learn along the way. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: that's pretty important. Yeah, and that's interesting how like the
Speaker 1: Tokyo Olympics kind of forced you to have a product
Speaker 1: that showed you more about yourself, that you learned more
Speaker 1: about yourself through that process, especially given that it was
Speaker 1: a logo. I think logos are one of the most
Speaker 1: stressful type of commissions because you know, sometimes a client
Speaker 1: doesn't know what they want and you have to create
Speaker 1: that and make it what they want. If they don't
Speaker 1: like it, you have to go all the way back
Speaker 1: to square one and figure out, you know, how are
Speaker 1: you going to make this idea someone has and make
Speaker 1: it real life and make it look good. So it
Speaker 1: was a great learning experience. We'll be back after this break.
Speaker 1: So you're doing the logo, you kind of discover the iPad.
Speaker 1: It's now COVID. Everybody's getting laid off, and when did
Speaker 1: you realize the potential of NFTs? So I learned that
Speaker 1: further along the way. This is fast forwarding to about
Speaker 1: last year. Literally a year ago, I had begun going
Speaker 1: viral with my art style. I guess it was news fresh,
Speaker 1: something you know, most people hadn't seen before, especially since
Speaker 1: my goal as an artist was to draw people who
Speaker 1: looked like meat in a very positive light, so I
Speaker 1: think that also gravitated towards viewers. I started getting an
Speaker 1: influx of comments and dms and like, hey, you should
Speaker 1: ment this as an NFT, and like you should do
Speaker 1: this and do that, and I seen them and I
Speaker 1: really felt like, I don't know if you've ever seen
Speaker 1: the four x trader spam comments on Instagram, but I
Speaker 1: felt like it was literally that, but just Twitter, and
Speaker 1: it was something I didn't understand. It was something I
Speaker 1: didn't have any interest on. I kind of hopped on
Speaker 1: the bandwagon that NFTs were terrible for the environment, people
Speaker 1: were going to die from it, and I was just
Speaker 1: really really under the whole thing exactly. I saw one
Speaker 1: of my artists friends he I guess, I don't know
Speaker 1: how the wall the hole came to be, but I
Speaker 1: guess he kicked a hole in the wall by accident,
Speaker 1: and he put a frame on top of it and
Speaker 1: he minted it. I believe this was on open sea
Speaker 1: and it sold for seven thousand dollars. Wow. When I
Speaker 1: saw that, I was like, you know, that's kind of
Speaker 1: like effortless art. I think I can do that as well.
Speaker 1: And also at the time, I was trying to move
Speaker 1: out to my house so I needed a down payment
Speaker 1: and sales print cells hadn't been going the way I
Speaker 1: wanted them too, so I'm like, you know, we're just
Speaker 1: gonna try out into We're just gonna try it out,
Speaker 1: you know, test the water if it's see if it's
Speaker 1: really worth the hype. So I had gotten an invitation
Speaker 1: onto Foundation, so I minted my first NFT there and
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaking, it sold within twenty four hours
Speaker 1: for one point five ethereum. Wow. Yeah. And at the
Speaker 1: time I didn't know that you're supposed to start low
Speaker 1: and then work up high, so I guess I just
Speaker 1: I just went for it. But yeah, that was a start,
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, I'm not I'm never going back.
Speaker 1: And your work is totally taken off. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just amazing and the fact that so many people can
Speaker 1: see it so quickly. I mean, is that something that
Speaker 1: appeals to you in terms of the NFT world. One
Speaker 1: thing that I also I always value is that I
Speaker 1: don't really like shilling. I would rather that you know,
Speaker 1: the viewer saves my art and actually feels drawn towards
Speaker 1: it and you know, has curiosity and has you know,
Speaker 1: wants to know what's inside my world. That to me
Speaker 1: is way more than hopping in a Twitter space or
Speaker 1: a clubhouse room and like, hey, this is my project,
Speaker 1: is what I'm trying to do. I feel like everyone's
Speaker 1: doing that now, so you know, they're becoming less and
Speaker 1: less and less trustworthy. But yeah, if you feel, if
Speaker 1: you feel drawn towards my art, my price is thrown
Speaker 1: out the window. I want you to just be able
Speaker 1: to enjoy it. Well, it is so incredible, it really is.
Speaker 1: At the piece that you've done for the Seneca Women
Speaker 1: in a quality collection, it is really exquisite. Can you
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about how you thought about
Speaker 1: this piece? Of course, the prompt was to show us
Speaker 1: how you envision a quality tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about the process of making the peace. I knew straight
Speaker 1: at the gate I wanted it to be a very
Speaker 1: powerful woman I didn't yet know how that was going
Speaker 1: to be. M I just I was I was just sketching.
Speaker 1: I was just like, hum, what should I do kind
Speaker 1: of hairstyle blah blah blah blah. And I came across
Speaker 1: this picture of these bullhorns and it was it was
Speaker 1: the same um posture I should say, that was, you know,
Speaker 1: in the woman that I had illustrated, And I was like,
Speaker 1: this is actually really sick, and you know it, it
Speaker 1: sort of portrayed like a sense of strength. It would
Speaker 1: be cool. I thought it would be cool to like
Speaker 1: put a horn on a woman, but not actual horns.
Speaker 1: So I ended up um making the braves the horns,
Speaker 1: and I wanted them in a certain way that made
Speaker 1: them look like they were really thick and strong and like,
Speaker 1: you know, can hold on their own. Once I have
Speaker 1: a pretty solid idea of what I want to illustrate,
Speaker 1: the rest is completely freestyled. I think I went through
Speaker 1: about eighty different color changes, just because I wanted everything
Speaker 1: to be very specific, very important. Yeah, I was just
Speaker 1: I don't know. I was really going for that simple
Speaker 1: yet very detailed look and it really shows and it's
Speaker 1: super powerful. I mean, I think you really captured that
Speaker 1: with the work. How have you found the space in
Speaker 1: terms of women's art and the general NFT market. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, the women who get it get it, and
Speaker 1: what that means is you know it doesn't I don't. Personally,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't get into a space and start complaining. I
Speaker 1: would rather just be that confident person and do it myself.
Speaker 1: And there's some women, there's a lot of women actually
Speaker 1: in the space who understand exactly what that means, and
Speaker 1: they're doing incredibly amazing. They know how to maneuver through
Speaker 1: these male dominant spaces and just be themselves and be
Speaker 1: very authentic. I had the pleasure of working with World
Speaker 1: of Women several times, and you know it always it's
Speaker 1: a great reminder that you know, there are there are
Speaker 1: spaces for us that allow us to completely flourish. I
Speaker 1: think it's just really a matter of confidence and knowing
Speaker 1: that you are that person. I'm not going to cuss,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's just knowing that you know, we're the
Speaker 1: reason why there are men at the moment. I love it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think you're going to be an inspiration
Speaker 1: for a lot of people of all ages who want
Speaker 1: to get into the space. It's moving so fast, and
Speaker 1: so yeah, I guess you have to be brave to
Speaker 1: beeo willing to jump in. And it's just kind of
Speaker 1: amazing that you went from drawing to you know, the
Speaker 1: iPad to what you've done in just such a short
Speaker 1: amount of time. Did COVID have a big impact on
Speaker 1: yougoing digital? Um, not really. I've always admired having cool technology,
Speaker 1: you know, learning different stuff. I do think I missed
Speaker 1: out on the in person aspect, so like now you know,
Speaker 1: meetups are normal, and I just feel really uncomfortable, Like
Speaker 1: I don't think I've been around that many people in
Speaker 1: a single space since my sophomore year of high school. Wow,
Speaker 1: And because I was mainly homeschooled throughout high school, but
Speaker 1: we had weekly classes where you could be on campus
Speaker 1: with a bunch of kids, and that was my only
Speaker 1: source of social gathering in that time. So now it's
Speaker 1: just really weird. But I don't think it had a
Speaker 1: huge impact on, you know, how I progressed, maybe more
Speaker 1: so on the entrepreneurial side, you know, learning how to
Speaker 1: actually make money from home. I think that was definitely
Speaker 1: a challenge, but yeah, it wasn't It wasn't hard well,
Speaker 1: I tell you this collection. I think what's exciting for
Speaker 1: us about the collection is that we're representing, you know,
Speaker 1: all different countries and we're talking to women who are
Speaker 1: kind of representing their culture and being able to share
Speaker 1: it across the world kind of instantaneously. I'm really excited
Speaker 1: to see all the different work and to see it
Speaker 1: come together and then to celebrate, you know, to continue
Speaker 1: to add new women artists, and I think I think
Speaker 1: you're inspiring to so many people, and your work is
Speaker 1: extremely moving and we appreciate so much what you do.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much for joining the collection and
Speaker 1: for joining us today. Thank you so Lage. I am
Speaker 1: so honored. I'm really excited to see you know everything.
Speaker 1: It's so amazing to meet Is and her work is incredible.
Speaker 1: Go to Seneca Women dot com to see her work
Speaker 1: and the other artists in the Seneca Women A Quality Collection,
Speaker 1: and join us tomorrow for another Women Rule Web three conversation.
Speaker 1: Have a great day. You're listening to Seneca Women Conversations
Speaker 1: on power and Purpose, brought to you by the Seneca
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