“My art holds some kind of information, a significant reflection of today and our global environment changing.”
Stitching Together a Cultural Canvas: Sylvia Mekhitarian’s Early Influences
Born amidst the vibrant rhythms of Egypt to Armenian parents, Sylvia Mekhitarian was gently steered by a river of diverse cultural and geographical narratives that ultimately shaped the topography of her artistic expressions. Her early years, imbued with the ambient whispers of her parents’ eclectic conversations in multiple languages and the ensuing familial migrations due to geopolitical tremors, notably the Suez Crisis, laid the foundational tapestry upon which her artistic journey would intricately weave. The Mekhitarian family, later embedding their roots in the cultural melting pot of Sydney, Australia in 1965, inadvertently fed Sylvia’s creative musings with experiences bridging continents.
The artist’s exposure to a multitude of cultures and contexts during her formative years not only enriched her personal worldview but also substantively influenced the nuances of her early artworks. Mekhitarian, initially enthralled by portrait and fashion drawing, witnessed an evolutionary leap in her artistic endeavors, gradually immersing herself into the expressive domains of life drawing and ceramics. The subsequent exploration of mixed media during her university tenure catalyzed a transition into printmaking and ephemeral flirtations with technological integrations into her art, culminating in a profound dedication to stone lithography for half a decade.
From Personal Pursuit to Professional Pathway: Mekhitarian’s Artist Evolution
Despite the lack of enthusiastic endorsement from her parents, who harbored skepticism towards art as a serious pursuit, Sylvia Mekhitarian navigated her path toward artistic professionalism with subtle nudges of encouragement from beyond her immediate family, particularly during her times in England and Australia. Her initial forays into the world of art found expression through community art projects and life drawing sessions. However, this was only a precursor to a more professional journey that officially commenced following her acquisition of a BA in Visual Arts, with a concentrated focus on printmaking, and her subsequent attainment of a teaching diploma.
Sylvia seamlessly interweaves a panoply of experiences, amalgamating elements from her rich and varied family life, alternate lifestyles, and academic pursuits, into the threads of her artistic tapestry. The artist perceives her creations as imperative conduits through which contemporary narratives, especially those surrounding global environmental shifts, can be communicated and contemplated. Thus, Mekhitarian, through her art, endeavors to offer not only a visual feast but also a platform upon which critical reflections regarding our contemporary existence are served with a side of insightful and thought-provoking dialogues.
Navigating Through Artistic Expressions: Sylvia Mekhitarian’s Postmodern Exploration
Embarking on a voyage through the waters of Postmodern Art, Sylvia Mekhitarian astutely navigates through the intricate tapestries of societal and cultural politics. Her artistic style, eloquently embodying themes gravitating predominantly around Ecology, Human-Environment interactions, and social structures, becomes a visual representation of these complexities. The artist integrates her educational narrative into her works, yet allows ample space for the ethereal whispers of intuition and unconscious musings to guide her creations. This results in art that captures the essence of fleeting dreams and ephemeral flashbacks, scribbled down and spontaneously materialized into tangible expressions of her internal and external worlds.
Sylvia finds solace and inspiration in the comforting embrace of silence and the natural environments, characterizing her ideal workspace. Practical realities, however, often steer her into the communal spheres of printmakers’ facilities to utilize their stone lithography printing presses. Amidst fellow printmakers, she manages distractions with a cloak of her chosen music, enveloping herself in melodic strands that allow her to submerge into her creative depths, where distractions dissipate and only the art remains.
Sylvia Mekhitarian: Balancing Influences and Individuality
With esteemed artists like Banksy and Leonardo da Vinci marking influential points on her artistic compass, Sylvia Mekhitarian nonetheless ensures her creations seldom tread the path of emulation. Her trust is deeply rooted in the fertile soil of her own thoughts and life experiences, which kindle the flames of her imagination and creativity. A piece that epitomizes this is ‘Mt View road,’ a stone lithography work that not only signifies her fascination with mountains but also serves as a repository of memories and sentiments, echoing landscapes as varied as the towering Himalayan peaks to the lush, forested regions of Queensland where she resides.
Transitioning from earlier explorations in functional and sculptural ceramic and life drawing, the artist found herself gravitating towards painting, mixed media, and design-oriented art during her university years, eventually immersing herself in stone lithography. Entranced by the flow of line drawings with the touche and brush, Sylvia aims to captivate audiences with the vivid images she conjures. Even as future projects—envisaged as large-scale, possibly outdoor installations exploring various shades of black—linger in her thoughts, they continue to evolve, promising to unveil ever-new facets of her developing artistic journey.
