Story of an Elephant

I love painting and I love elephants
The two constant things that will always be in my life

Painting:

The story goes way back to my childhood. I have always loved paintings and have been painting since childhood.
Did I ever tell you that my dad is an Artist?!... I guess I inherited love for arts, and painting particularly, from him…
Then, all of a sudden, out of nothing, I quit painting for some 5-6 years and got back to it only in 2010.

Elephants:

I found out that I am actually big fun of elephants, when I caught myself drawing them randomly without putting any art in what I was doing anytime I had to wait for someone or didn’t feel like doing anything or was just idling around … and, you know, things that you do or say subconsciously are actually the things after your heart…   

…So from then on I decided that I love elephants…

So in 2010 I started taking courses on Graphics with Tata Mktrchyan, super talented and very dear friend of mine, at the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Arts curetted by Ali Ansari, another mega talented artist and a good friend of ours. On concluding our classes we held an exhibition. And that was the FIRST EXHIBITION I have ever participated in my life…

“The Sad Elephant” was born then…

We were renovating our apartment and I didn’t really have much space to get prepared for the first exhibition in my life properly… so the only space I had I could make my drawings was my knees. I took oil colors, vegetable old, a sponge, a pencil… and tried a new technique recommended by my dad… and I somehow did a sponge painting then :)))

I would lie if I say that I was crazy about the elephant when I finished painting it, though everybody else were… and even during the exhibition this elephant got the highest praises among the rest of my works.
So about a month ago I got a phone call from Espaces Center/KASA Foundation (where I ran my 3rd exhibition) with the offer to take part at the United Ambassadors of Arts painting contest. (Let me just share the website of the contest www.uaart.org if anyone likes to get more info on it). Shortly, the contest was about creating an artwork based on folklore/legends/myths of the selected countries. I chose the UK and dedicated my “Sad Elephant” to the Jamie Clubb's "The Legend of Salt and Sauce": The Amazing Story of Britain's Most Famous two Indian elephants, which arrived in Britain in 1902 and became involved in the live entertainment industry from the Music Hall scene to circus… the end of the story is predictably more dramatic, so I’ll stop here…   

…and guess what happened…
my “Sad Elephant” took the first place for the UK…

It’s indescribable to say how I feel… it definitely means a world to me to see that I am doing something which I have always loved to do and there are some people who love it too… and it’s worth doing it…

My “Sad Elephant” was not only my first artwork to take the first place at the contest, but also my first artwork to get sold. Now it’s off to USA with a very nice person who loved my elephant. I was happy to meet him and am happy that my elephant is with a person who truly appreciates it.

And you know what… the only time I felt really attached to my “Sad Elephant” and saw the real beauty of it  was when giving it away to its present owner…

I waved and cried goodbye to my happy “Sad Elephant”…