Revealing art as both a personal compulsion and a universal language.
•
Guy Ghazanchyan
If I’m feeling good, I paint. If I’m feeling bad, I paint. If I’m in the mood, I paint. If I’m not, I still paint.
When, as a child I would ask, what is this or that, I would be told to break it down into syllables and see if there is a clue in the words.
ա•րա•րել [to create]
Anything that reflects a creative process, when a person has made it for it to exist, can theoretically be considered art.
I paint to give my thoughts visual form. I paint only for myself, the process, yes, is for me but I want the final result to be universal. I want someone to see it and feel something, even if it’s just a fraction, maybe 10 percent, of what I experienced while creating it.
Painting isn’t a hobby for me, something I do when I feel like it. If I’m feeling good, I paint. If I’m feeling bad, I paint. If I’m in the mood, I paint. If I’m not, I still paint. Even if I’m sick, I paint because this is work that I simply cannot not do.
•
Gagik Ghazanchyan
I have no recollection of my life ever being different. I’ve been painting since I was young and that is how it has been all along.
Painting is my life, that is what I live on, literally and figuratively. I paint, I sell some works, I live on that money and again, I paint. I don’t know where this leads to but I have no recollection of my life ever being different. I’ve been painting since I was young and that is how it has been all along. My works and approaches change of course, different interests come to the forefront at different times. My studio is the best spot on earth for me.
•
Lilit Soghomonyan
The process is what truly matters, our whole life is a process.
A painter constantly asks themselves: What is art? What is it for? Why? For whom? To this day, I haven’t been able to understand what it is, why it exists, or for whom it is meant. My whole life has been a search for these answers. It’s the simplest yet most agonizing question because the most brilliant things are often the simplest.
On the other hand, I believe that a creative person shouldn’t even ask this question. I cannot exist without painting, but the moment that question arises, the process comes to a halt. And the process is what truly matters, our whole life is a process. Even if we suffer along the way, that too is a kind of happiness, because it means we are thinking about something higher, something beyond the material.
•
Nona Gabrielyan
Why did human beings begin to paint? Create music? Why did humans take an interest in form? I believe it came out of the need for self-expression, to declare their existence.
Why do people create? I think people create to save humanity from extinction. And why did human beings begin to paint? Create music? Why did humans take an interest in form? I believe it came out of the need for self-expression, to declare their existence. In Armenia and Italy, you can find murals so ancient that I believe people at the time did not yet communicate through speech. There was simply an urge to express emotions, and the energy for that came from nowhere—just from the cosmos.
As people gathered and accumulated knowledge, they reached the conclusion that they were becoming stronger and, therefore, more important. They realized they could conquer territories, that they were capable of war, that they were aggressive. Meanwhile, those drawn to abstract concepts—music, color, form, words—are not aggressive.
I believe that art was born earlier than all other disciplines. It’s no coincidence that people say, “Art leaves when war arrives and returns when it ends.” Of course, even during war, works of art are created, but that art is deeply focused on war itself, it does not express the creator’s inner world but rather reflects reality. An artist is both a witness and an instrument of their time. They may not build machines or houses, but they create an environment that is not aggressive.
Life without art is meaningless. Art comes first.
