PRESS RELEASE The descendant of Armenian refugees to Syria, I grew up in a place where the idea of privacy did not exist, where families lived so closely that to get to one home you’d have to go through another. The sense of community was strong, the whole community having the feel of something ransplanted from one place to the other. Then, as an adult, I transplanted myself to Armenia and finally to the United States. I became fascinated with the idea of migration, of a people leaving a place and creating a new life from nothing. My art is the luggage that I’ve carried from one place to the next, with pockets full of the memories and the influences of the cultures I was born of and into. My architectural pieces are inspired by my childhood walking through quarters of buildings constructed on top of each other, Escher-like. The sculptures, ornaments and mosaics of the ancient ruins of my city inspire my figurative pieces, as do the calligraphic designs of the two alphabets I was raised on. I have always felt that I was a part of something more greatly inclusive, even while being on the outside­as immigrant, as artist. I have always felt embraced by my history, the one thing you can never let go of, even while you find yourself moving ahead geographically and temporally. I always feel the pull of what I have left behind, of what my ancestors and I have built upon and in my indebtedness, I shift that weight into my art.