Narjes Mohammadi 
Kunstloc Brabant is the organization of knowledge and implementation in art and culture for the province of North Brabant, Netherlands. They commissioned me to create a collection of illustrations for their website and social media on different topics.
Dancing with the lines «Dance is the hidden language of the soul.» – Martha Graham
Dancing is not only a form of happiness, it also is a form of criticism, protest, and storytelling. It invites us to find pieces of our own story. It urges us to explore the depths of our emotions and contemplate the shared tapestry of existence. We discover a profound way to go into the depths of our being, express feelings that cannot be expressed in words, and uncover the essence of our unique stories in the captivating worlds of dance and sketching. The world can learn about our individual experiences through these art forms, just as each dance step tells a narrative and each line on a painting discloses one. Through (Dancing with the Lines), I seek to bring my pieces of stories to life, with forms, colors, and lines. From the subtle hues of joy to the bold strokes of protest.
“Into the woods she went, not knowing the dangers that lay ahead, for innocence often walks hand in hand with peril.”
The story of a girl who finds a bird and decides to keep that for herself in a cage. It’s a lovely story with a deep meaning about freedom. Floor Tinga writes the book.
This collection is about men and women who try to discover their own world and their invisible effects on others’ life. Undoubtedly, such a journey of discovery is not easy. It requires great courage and honest to face yourself at high and low points in your life. It needs a long time loneliness and thinking deeply to find his/ her voice to rebirth again. In starting this project, my aim was to show people the invisible ropes that have a deep influence on our lives and make us follow movements, thoughts, and vagabond ideologies without knowing where they all lead to. I don’t want to people for that matter, how to act. I want to show how much more beautiful life can be if we untie the ropes that bind us and let our spirits spread their wings in flight.
At first, I was inspired to start this project by looking at the women of Iran and their all-too-visible barriers, but the more I delved into this matter, the more questions arose in my mind. I began to see a greater number of invisible ropes that have not only been tied around the women of Iran, but also all women and men around the world. These invisible ropes have taken away the freedom of both people and countries by restricting free movement. Free movement of people, that is the freedom of thought and action, is the deeper definition of freedom, not just the superficial meaning. The invisible, freedom-restricting ropes are called by different names in different countries. In some places they are called “religion”, while in other places they take the name of “tradition”, or “politics”. These ropes even take on different colors, shapes, and smells, but they can be identified by the fact that their appearance makes us forget about the real meaning of freedom.
The story of this picture book is about a little girl who looks for a super specific title to write an essay. Her teacher at school tells her to write an essay, but she can’t find a good title to write about. Actually, she sees strange and magical subjects every day, but she thinks that they are so normal. For instance, one day she sees a dinosaur in front of their home, but she sees it’s normal! Another day she sees a circus as soon as she opens the door, another day she sees a huge spaceship but none of them attract her attention. This book is an interactive book. It’s written by Payam Ebrahimi and illustrated by Narjes Mohammadi.
Technique: Traditional & Digital painting
At first, I was inspired to start this project by looking at the women of Iran and their all-too-visible barriers, but the more I delved into this matter, the more questions arose in my mind. I began to see a greater number of invisible ropes that have not only been tied around the women of Iran, but also all women and men around the world. These invisible ropes have taken away the freedom of both people and countries by restricting free movement. Free movement of people, that is the freedom of thought and action, is the deeper definition of freedom, not just the superficial meaning. The invisible, freedom-restricting ropes are called by different names in different countries. In some places they are called “religion”, while in other places they take the name of “tradition”, or “politics”. These ropes even take on different colors, shapes, and smells, but they can be identified by the fact that their appearance makes us forget about the real meaning of freedom.
This collection was featured at ErranT ( Spain), and Illustrade ( Germany)
What a brilliant idea! – Narjes Mohammadi
The story is about a little boy named (Cooki) who doesn’t like his ears. He thinks that they are so big. So he decides to cover them with a mask. At first, he is happy with the result, but it causes some problems at school, home and…
I wrote and illustrated this book in 2018. The book was published by Tuti Publishing House in 2019. Then it was translated and published in Greek, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic and Turkish. This book was selected in some illustration festivals and nominated as one of the top 10 best projects in COW illustration festival in 2018 and Little Hakka picture book competition. The International Children’s Books in Germany introduced this book as one of the best 200 books in the White Ravens list in 2020. Victoria government in Australia was also introduced this book as one of the best books for children. In 2021it was also selected in the list of Lakposhtparande with five out of six signs .
(What a briiliant idea!) is on the list of best seller books over the last five years.
Technique: Digital painting and collage.
This book is about a little girl named ( Barli), who is the hero in this story. She sold different kinds of balloons in different shapes and colours. She lived in a tiny house under a bridge. The bridge connected two cities together. Each city had a king and both of them were foolish.
One day they fought against each other just because of a blue balloon. Then…
This book was written by Navid Aliakbar in 2018 and published by Elmi-Farhangi publishing house. The art director was MS. Maryam Kmal.
In this book, I mixed both traditional and digital techniques.
