Miriam El-Abbassi | Arts Editor
Featured Image: Parsa Navidi is a third-year Cinema and Media Studies student at York, who began exploring the realm of visual art as a result of his love for video games. | Chris Dejesus
Parsa Navidi is a third-year cinema and media studies student at York, who began exploring the realm of visual art as a result of his love for video games. Enthralled by the stunning imagery, Navidi decided to start producing his own versions of the work he saw on the screen.
“Video games have always been a huge part of my childhood, and even now. Besides being something fun and entertaining, video games have stories that suck you in, characters you become invested in, and amazing artwork that has definitely inspired my own,” Navidi says.
Growing up, Navidi recalls spending most of his free time playing video games, and not doing much else. While playing video games started out as being something most kids his age do to pass the time, things took a turn when Navidi began taking different art courses in high school that required him to draw inspiration from the world around him.
“A lot of the assignments in those classes were pretty flexible concerning what you wanted as the subject of your piece. I’m not the best at coming up with ideas, so I sought the advice of my teacher, who suggested I paint what I know best. At 16 years old, there was nothing I knew better than video games.”
Navidi began furiously brainstorming, coming upon endless possibilities for scenes he could paint. From the epic shootouts in Call of Duty, to the retro-futuristic technology of Fallout, and even the decaying zombies or Resident Evil, the hardest part was choosing only one to recreate for that initial assignment.
After laying pencil to paper, Navidi describes those first few moments: “It just felt like pure excitement, and if the bell hadn’t run for the next period, I probably could’ve done the outline in one sitting.” That first piece turned out to be a recreation of the “Little Sister” character from BioShock.
This excitement for creation carried through to university, where Navidi began creating even more pieces in his free time. For now, Navidi mentions that painting has remained a hobby, but he doesn’t rule out the possibility of bigger things happening in the future.
“There are so many more directions I could take my work, and I’ve even considered expanded my social media to showcase my art, but with school being the main priority, that is all up in the air right now.”
