Category: Art

OK, well NOW maybe back.

So right after I wrote that last post, we learned about the attacks on Armenians in Artsakh. That was one thing too many, in our world. I hope all of you, your friends, and your relatives are okay, and/or that you can find peace now. This has been such a trying year. And the ongoing destruction of Armenian people, property, and cultural heritage is so incredibly devastating. Our prayers are with everyone in Artsakh and Armenians across the world. It’s hard to not feel helpless, and to keep moving forward and contributing, but we’re trying our best.

Two positive updates from the last few months:

  1. We finally got the translation back, of the book about Vartan’s great grandfather Hagopos Ayvazian. It’s just a document with the words translated and none of the music or pictures in it, so I think we’ll copy those in and then share it with everyone here.
  2. I got my first commission for the trchnakir art I do! A woman from our church saw a picture of one I had done (because I offered a commission as an item for our church auction), and asked me to make one for her parents. I was so flattered, had fun doing it, and learned a LOT. I think I’m finally going to start selling them and taking more commissions… exciting! Final framed version below, and here’s a link to some more pictures of it: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Qw24YagXEjGw74YDkFDfT0kZQV_rkVah?usp=sharing

Christ as Healer Art Project for Kids

Today was my last day of maternity leave, and so our toddler is going back to daycare full time. I’ll miss having him home with us all the time. As exhausting as it has been, it’s been fantastic to watch him grow every day, and we’ve done some fun activities together. We took a stab at the Eastern Diocese’s “Christ as Healer Art Project for Kids” activity last week. With a toddler, there was less discussion and much more finger paint…! Haha, we had fun… 🙂

Some new trchnakir projects

Finally got some time to myself last night, and had some fun starting a few new art projects.  I just picked names out of our church bulletin, because they list name remembrances every week, and I have this idea that maybe I’ll sell some of these at the church bazaar next year.  I posted it to my personal Facebook page, and someone said she’d BUY one for her son, Joey!  So I got started on that too.

I go through phases with these, but it’s a lot of fun to come up with creative ideas for letter shapes, and patterns for the birds.  I use real-life birds, bugs, butterflies, snakes as inspiration for my patterns (see Pinterest board), rather than doing more traditional Armenian art styles.  Oh well.  It’s fun :-).

If anyone WANTS one for their kiddo, family, whatever, let me know!  It’ll be a good opportunity for me to practice, and figure out how to frame/ship them.

More trchnakir drawings

I got these new water-based blendable pens, and have been experimenting with them… Results below. The blending feature works pretty well actually, if I alternate colors and taper down thickness of the lines. I think it’s working especially well on this paper, which is specifically made for calligraphy. Something about it is making the colors seep in a little bit better. The paper is more translucent than the other drawing pads I have, so I don’t think it’s a great solution, but it’s fun to experiment with different materials for now. 😊

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Ս, in progress

Trchnakir for my niece

Quick picture of a trchnakir I made as a gift for my niece’s first birthday. I haven’t done any art in a while, not really since we had the baby. It was nice to get back into it, at least for a few days and this specific project. I’m not super happy with the colors or the way it turned out, but I’m liking the format – only 3 letters, in English, someone’s initials, and 4×6. I’ve already started to sketch out a few more 😊