Lake Sevan
Lake Sevan was born at a moment of personal transition. While my earlier paintings navigated uncertainty, this work emerged from a more stable, though still evolving position. Central to this work is the notion of an anchor: an image, a place, or a memory to which one can return in order to restore inner balance. This understanding did not come immediately. While working on the painting, I encountered the method of anchoring, a practice that involves returning to a calm and comforting memory to restore a sense of stability when reality becomes overwhelming.
My anchor turned out to be a childhood memory from my grandfather’s studio. I was about five years old. His workshop was in perfect order: hundreds of brushes, metal tubes of oil paint, and the intense, unforgettable smell of oil paint and solvent. My grandfather showed me his tools, which I later inherited and which have since become part of my own practice. This memory still brings a strong sense of calm and safety. It was there that I first encountered a state of flow, a deep immersion in work in which time dissolves and the act of creative making becomes the reward.
My grandfather, Avak, spent his entire life painting the same motif: Lake Sevan in Armenia. He returned to it repeatedly, changing perspective, light, and emotional tone. He repainted this motif hundreds of times. To me, this appears as a form of deep attachment, an endless return to one’s anchor in order to regain stability, joy, and inner order in a world shaped by chaos and disappointment.
I imagine him standing there, between mountains, sky, and water, in a state of complete harmony. Later, he was forced to leave his homeland and move to Estonia. Years later, I was born. Within this rupture of space and time, the connection between generations becomes especially tangible to me: the way the strength, knowledge, and experience of our ancestors continue to live within us, supporting us in the most vulnerable moments of life.
This painting is my own Lake Sevan. A place I have never seen in reality, yet know through my grandfather’s paintings. He and his artistic practice became my anchor. This work is a gesture of gratitude, an attempt to transmit warmth and a sense of connection that exist beyond words, geography, and time.
Art, by its very nature, is deeply spiritual. Often, during the process of making, we are not fully aware of the internal transformations taking place. Their meaning becomes clear only after the work is completed. Having finished this painting, I feel the need to move forward, towards a new work, a new composition, and into the space of uncertainty. For me, it is precisely this movement forward that constitutes a tribute to my grandfather, to continue the journey while carrying the anchor within.
Acrylic and oil on canvas
100 × 100 cm
2026
Original artwork, signed on the back
The canvas is stretched on a wooden frame
No external framing included
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