Heart of the Week: Vol. 1
Joshua Hashemzadeh
We here at The Heart Project are proud of our community, not only because of the positive growth we’ve seen in numbers and activity, but because a majority of that activity comes from creatives. As we entered 2022, I thought there was no better time to start a weekly initiative aimed at featuring those creatives. Thus Heart Of The Week was born. We have to say we were a little surprised at not only the amount of submissions, but the sheer quality of them! There really are some amazingly talented individuals repping Hearts. Artists from across mediums gave us a lot to think about, but when we saw the work shared from Joshua Hashemzadeh, it was a no-brainer. We all know that collage art and mixed media is trending up in 2022, but what’s coming out of Studio Hash is truly unique. Josh took the time to sit down with our community manager Dan (@muzzybearr) for a little chat about his origin story and how he ended up as our inaugural Heart of The Week.
Q: Hi Josh! Just gotta start with the basics: Where are you from?
A: My family originally immigrated from Iran and Switzerland but I’m happy to say I was born and raised in LA. Gang gang!
Q: How old are you?
A: I’m 28.
Q: When did you first start creating?
A: My parents split when I was about three and both of them worked a lot, so I spent my time drawing and imagining adventures in my head. Was like an escape from boredom.
Q: Do you remember the first thing you made?
A: I can’t think of a single object, but I remember being super into Warhammer 40k when I was young. Never even learned to play, literally just painted an army of zombie figurines lol.
Q: Do you remember the first thing you were PROUD of making?
A: Damn that’s tough, I think it might be those figurines. They were pretty fire!
Q: When did you decide to pursue art full time?
A: I was raised by Muslim immigrants. The idea of art as a career didn’t really exist for most of my life. I was exposed here and there at museums, but it wasn’t until my first internship working with designer Roger Thomas that I learned art could be a thing. Roger was a patron to Warhol and was involved in a lot of cool projects. He had mentioned his daughter was enrolled in art school and that I should consider it. That was amazing to me that you could draw for a living and make dope shit all day. After that I ended up going to SF to study art.
Q: For this recent collection, you said you developed it during quarantine. Where did that inspiration come from?
A: Honestly, I had some rougher years in my early to mid 20s. Was just working multiple jobs trying to figure out my housing situation and my art inevitably suffered. That led to a period of panic-attacks based on feelings of being overlooked. I started to think about all the stories that go unheard and the social pressures that sometimes prevent people from reaching where they want to go. When lockdowns started in 2020 that flipped the script. I was able to work from home and had way more time to be prolific. Working small made sense but being able to make art that reflected the untold stories of others really felt endearing. Especially at a time when we were losing hundreds of thousands of people to Covid. I like that these creations come from a place of remembrance.
Q: What made you decide to repurpose/upcycle old postcards?
A: Two of my favorite conceptual artists John Baldessari and On Kawara collaborated on a series in the 70’s where Kawara would send John (in LA) a postcard from NY that told him what time he woke up that day. I loved the idea of paying tribute to that.
Q: Do you have one that you’re most hype on?
A: It kind of depends on my mood but there was this one, [Rm.2] — Thrasher, that was inspired by my childhood skate shop in Studio City. That one feels extra nostalgic.
Q: What is your idea for next steps or goals with your art?
A: I always have more ideas than I have the means to produce, but I’d love to get more opportunities to show my work and scale up the community. It’ll be important to set up infrastructure for the long haul. I think NFTs may play a role in that. ;)
Q: What is the most exciting part of being Heart of the Week?
A: It‘s really nuts. Everyone in the community is so talented and I’m excited to help kick off what will be a long line of incredible artists featured here. Love the idea of us being able to collaborate and grow together.
Q: Do you feel uplifted by The Heart Project, and the NFT world at large?
A: I feel like after years of struggling as an artist and dealing with pushback it’s so sick to have a legit creative community with thousands of people who have gone through similar things and are here to support others. Like the mental benefit of being connected to that is huge and totally inspiring to me. I think the NFT world has a lot of potential to facilitate the evolution of our economy. Not just for artists but for everyone. Feel like all the price hype distracts from the bigger picture though, can’t get too caught up in floor prices or merch.
Q: What excites you the most looking forward to the rest of 2022?
A: I am super excited to see where crypto goes from here and would love to collaborate with The Hearts on some killer projects. Also, PROM!
We can’t wait to see what you come up with and release next! We’ll be cheering you on every step of the way.
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