My works evoke the unifying feelings of joy, happiness and connection that we all share in the mosaic of life. I explore the use of color, shape and texture, with color as the primary voice in the painting, and shape defining the movement of that voice across the canvas to tell a story. Much like life, the story is never linear – it jumps and coasts, rises and recedes, blending and defining along the way, and reflecting the multidimensional life experience we share.

I discovered my natural passion for art and painting in my first year as a teaching assistant, where the instructor taught all disciplines through an art-focused lens. Inspired by the children’s works, I explored techniques outside of the classroom, mixing paint colors and creating prints with my hands and found objects.

After visiting with Aboriginal artists in Australia, whose works tell stories across generations, I incorporated their technique of creating complex images originating from a single dot. I continued to study both the masters and contemporary artists, and experimented with painting in the pointillist style using everything from Q-tips to chopsticks. Over time, I developed a style that I feel echoes our diverse life experience together, through an interplay of color, structure and flow on the canvas. My work often reflects not only our immediate shared experience, but also our communal experience across time. I have recently been drawn to rendering the beauty of the mandala in diffuse color stories, and using papier-mâché to effect textured minimalist sculptures upon canvas that mimics the movement found in my paintings.

A driving force behind my love for the arts and art making can be traced back to my experience as an Armenian immigrant child. I moved to the United States at age 12, knowing little English, and believe any exposure to art or arts classes would have improved my language skills and communication with my peers. As a self-taught artist, and an early childhood and elementary-level educator for nearly 30 years, I often consider how the educational system now stymies children’s capacity for expansive knowledge by cutting support for creative arts in the curriculum. Without this exposure, children who have the potential for unique artistic expression lose the opportunity to realize it. The arts contribute to the thoughtful discussions, curious explorations and revelatory experiences that enhance the everyday and help to create a colorful life – at any age. Long ago, I vowed that no child who came through my classroom would leave without discovering, expressing and owning his or her artistic gifts. It is through my work of educating children to learn about themselves while learning the curriculum, and witnessing the most amazing masterpieces that they create from their hearts, that my own passion for exploring art and artful expression is continuously renewed.