Wednesday Karaoke

Guess where?!

Bureaucrat Bookstore and...

~PowerPoint Karaoke~ 

Seemingly serious but truly fun event that I have attended...
A place you can be, or better said, encouraged to be totally random and make fun at the serious stuff projected on the screen :)))

You know what, this kind of events are actually meant to educate, foster breaking the barriers, and do something that probably you would have never thought you could do and all this is spiced with laughters, smiles and positive environment around…  :)))))
A small scene I faced... a girl says “I am really bad at bull shitting” and the next scene goes with her at the presentation stage talking about hmmm let’s say nature that has always been divided between males and females or men who get pregnant or chickens… chickens… chickens and if I am not mistaken… a chicken :))

Actually this has been the 2^nd PowerPoint Karaoke… the First One I unfortunately missed, so I was really looking forwards to the upcoming PowerPoint Karaoke to really see what it is about to talk about something you have no idea and still have fun. 
I am still not sure whether I could do it or now :)))

So the event was of great interest to me not only because of the event itself but also because I had my camera... which meant I could TRY to make my 2^nd Photo Reportage of the event.

I am at the polishing-skills stage in photography which means I experiment a lot… well, at least I try to. So this event was not an exception as this time I experimented not only with ISO, Aperture and Shutter priorities but also with my current “White-balance” mode addiction.

As a result of my expeiments the event got a bit bluish :))))

Blue is a nice color... No! “Nice” is not the word to describe the blue… its pure, serene, aristocratic and elegant… not sure how the blue worked with these photos... maybe you could tell me?! :)))

Hayk Asryants, one of the organizers of the event opened the event

the 1st brave volunteer who made the presentation

then other brave people were found :)

no~no... he was not bored ;))))

ha~ha... now it's your turn :)))

some people were seriously following the presentations

a random guy was following the event from the back ... and... and I am going to marry him :P :)))

Arpiii, a dearest friend of mine, so reluctant to make a presentation, eventually DID it :))

and that was good :))) like almost all the presentations

Then, all of the sudden I noticed that the guy, I was going to marry, disappeared, so I went to look for him... and this is what I saw

when a man stands like this, it means something serious is going on in his head...

So I joined him and saw that he is looking for designs for our future apartment in the nice interior design books... but I'll tell you more about that in my upcoming posts :)))

...~...

... as you probably already guessed, we missed the ending of the event sitting in the Bureaucrat cafe and thumbing through the books...

If you still haven’t attended any of the PowerPoint Karaoke events, make sure you attend the upcoming ones. It’s really fun, and you can be the one to make it even more joyful.

Here I will pass to the special Thank-You parts to the organizers, who would be Hayk Asryants and Albert Poghosyan, Bureaucrat Bookstore for the nice aura of the event venue, Ashtarak  Kat for making the tasty break with their Mojo yogurts and, of course, thank you for reading the post :))) 

p.s. I think I need an external flash for my camera

p.p.s. Some of the photos I uploaded got auto-rotated, so I apologize for that... no idea how to fix it :(

... when I got back to Arts

I remember to have mentioned about my love for arts, and painting particularly, in my previous posts… and I also remember to have mentioned that I quit painting for 5-6 years then started it over again in 2010.

When I started painting and got deep into graphics I somehow came to realize that I would like to do something more that just paintings. Painting is very cool and extremely difficult especially for the ones who are not good at drawing… I don’t feel I am… so I started experimenting…

I took wires and started making random images and they turned out to be something nice and probably what I have been looking for while thinking of my own style. I thought I wouldn't really draw anything, but rather make the images and create my compositions with wires and color the background.

Never been a feminist, but have always valued the beauty of a woman. So the great majority of my works seemed to be dedicated to women. So tell me what you think of it all ?!... will appreciate to get feedback... :)))

The beauty of the woman (paper, oil, wire)

Love (paper, oil, wire) 

Head off (paper, oil, wire)

the Girl with umbrella (paper, oil, wire)

Lenin (paper, oil, wire)

man and woman (paper, oil, wire)

This is how I became a Wire-Addict :)))

oh, by the way, I think I got carried away with wires… look at my Christmas tree

my 1st XMAS tree 2010-2011

All the decorations of the tree are handmade by Ivana Krcadinac and Gohar from Kapan (If you've ever bought anything from Homeland Handicrafts you’d know her)

Talking about my first artworks, let me share also the ones actually painted and not "wired" :))

the Sad Elephant (already known :)

the Girl with a cat (paper, oil and marker :)))

Every Child Matters (paper, water color)

the Woman

Serenity (paper, oil)

NU (paper, oil)

the Reach (paper, oil)

another NU in autumn :) (paper, oil)

...........aaaaaand...........

 my palette :))) 

The great majority of the photos here were taken during my first exhibition by a super talented artist and the dearest friend of mine Lilie Altunyan who lives in France now :) 

Thank you for your attention and the time spent on this page :)) 

p.s. Lilie, I miss you so... :*

~Nude~ it happened

Before getting to drawing elephant, I used to be drawing women a lot… and they mainly were naked… so this means I used to be drawing Nudes. I dare say that I am a connoisseur of beauty…  I would even say… beauty goes beyond anything… it’s a value for me…  And doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the “external design” (as my boyfriend would always say), but rather action, glance, behavior, attitude, the beauty so hidden and so silent insight... that’s what I cherish so much.

I had this FIXED idea of shooting nudes… I was painting them all the time, then I wanted to shoot them, moreover I even started shooting with friends naked… and had nude photo session myself (well not 100 % nude, but rather in renaissance style… quite nice but gone… my USB stick got Kaput) … anyways feeling of shooting a nude never went away and eventually it did happen…

… Still I would have preferred to be alone with the model rather than in the same room with 10 or more photographers, at the class, with fixed lights, studio shooting and everything…  I am not sure if I like that… and plus my camera wouldn’t get connected to the synchronizer… I couldn’t get enough the light, and all the pictures eventually had a lot of noise… but it’s actually good… Noise in this case brings a little bit of art in the photos I took.

Anyways… here is what I selected, unselected then reselected from all the photos I took. I will give numbers to the photos along with titles and will really appreciate your feedback. 

1. the woman

2. she

3. this is how it starts

 4. a woman in grief

5. rest

6.  the making of

7. this was my fav, but I am nto able to rotate it... anyway decided to share it with  you :))) 

8.

9.

I am just a beginner in photography, and I know I am not good yet (Love the word “YET” it always gives hope :)… but with this I’d like to track my progress. 

Oh and, by the way, as for nudes, I don’t feel like shooting them any more… for me now it has become predictably boring to take shot of them... I feel like painting them more…

Гардероп

...Все таки напечатали... 

~ЗДОРОВО~

последний номер Журнала Ереван с Таней Геворкян на обложке

Пишет мне однажды моя любимая подружка Анулик, она же Анна Даниелян, и говорит: «Лиук, я вот сейчас пишу историю для журнала Ереван про одежду, давай напишем твою гардеробную историю тоже, что скажешь»? ... ну идея мне конечно же понравилась, только было одно но: моя гардеробная история она же, ну как вам сказать...интимная... я мало кому о ней рассказывала... но с другой стороны это же любимая история моего Тиграна, и тут подумала... почему бы и нет, можно, но только в том случае если она будет посвящена моему любимому Тиграну.

Тик обожает эту историю... каждый раз просит рассказать ее и слушает как в первый раз. Ну пусть теперь читает... ))))))

журнал Ереван, 35-я страница и...

 ~Гардероп~

Когда-то давно, когда мне было 14 или около того, наша дверь запиралась странным образом. В тот самый день я была уверена, что дверь заперта. Наслаждаясь одиночеством, я вдумчиво приняла душ, и укутанная полотенцем, мирно гуляла по гостиной — ведь если дома никого нет, совсем не обязательно тайно одеваться в спальне, если можно свободно разгуливать прямо по центру гостиной, не так ли? Гардероб  тогда именно там и располагался. Вытащив желтое платье, которое мне улыбнулось из распахнутой двери, я скинула с себя полотенце и только собралась одеваться, как в квартиру ворвались мужские голоса в количестве 5-6 штук и, предположительно с самими мужчинами. Я поняла точно: еще пара секунд, и все они ворвутся в комнату, станут свидетелями, если не виновниками моего позора! Недолго думая, я запихнулась в гардероб вместе с платьем, которому уже было не до улыбки. Как только дверь закрылась, в комнату ввалились парни  - мои старшие братья с друзьями. О моем временном пристанище они даже не догадывались. Действовала я профессионально, улик после себя не оставила.
Вам интересно, чем они занимались? Самым популярным и глупым занятием, совсем мелкие были, хоть и старше меня на тыщу лет. Они прикалывались над девочками по телефону: звонили и подключали громкую связь и тешили свое самолюбие. Возраст такой, что поделаешь? Все это продолжалось 4 часа. Последние полчаса были настоящим адом, помню, что воздуха мне уже не хватало. Когда они вышли, я выбралась из шмоточной тюрьмы, оделась. Но до сих пор не могу ответить на вопрос : почему не вышла раньше?

История посвящается моему любимому Тиграну :*

Спасибо моей Анулик за то, что она так классно отредактировала мою историю :*  

Спасибо вам за улыбку которая сейчас у вас на лице ))))

И конечно же огромный РЕСПЕКТ журналу Ереван !

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”…

…Once upon a Saturday PechaKucha

… Yeah… well, I know, I haven’t updated my Blog for a long time and since my last update a lot of things have radically changed in my life. I am looking at my profile here at bloodspot and I can hardly recognize myself… I started over doing photography, but now with the aim to become a professional photographer in some year (we’ll see… it’s just a plan) traveled to Germany, met amazing people there, and cut my hair there… so I no longer have the status “the girl with beautiful hair” )))… that’s ok, I still love my haircut…

So I could write pages and pages about the transformations I was passing through but I would like to concentrate on the very Saturday I went out with the camera and by the evening found myself in the PechaKucha Night Vol 8 carrying the ”I AM A NEWSPAPER” title. Of course, the event was of great interest to me as I am very much related to the field of Mass Media job wise. But my interest was even more triggered due to the fact that I could do my first Photo Reportage of the event and see how I am actually managing it.

I am just a tenderfoot in photography… and even if I know some certain rules theoretically, I am not always using them on practice. It takes time, so I am taking my time ...

So here is the story… the light of the area the event took place wasn’t really favorable for a “tenderfoot photographer”, so I was shooting with flash mainly. Then, one of Armenian talented photographers present at the event told me that I’d rather play with “Stutter”, “Aperture” and “ISO“ rather than shoot with flash. …Fair Enough... So I started taking shots as recommended, and the result was pretty good but they didn’t meet my primary goal to make Photo Reportage of the event as the quality and colors of the photos differed a lot. So the solution here, as to me, was grey-scaling the photos and for the first time in my life I put a little bit of grain in the photo... for the sake of Art :))) 

I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, good or bad… maybe you could tell me.. I would be happy to receive you feedback, on the photos displayed.

...So here is the PechaKucha Night Vol. 8 Photo Story...

A looof of people attended the PechaKucha, at some point it was really hard to find a place to sit.

 The organizers of PechaKucha Night made a welcome speech and talked about making donations for the Japan recent disaster victims.

The speakers started their presentations

....and the audience was all ears... and eyes...

 

While the speaches were going on, some REALLY nice guys sitting in the back probably were a little bit bored of the presentations and they were posing at the camera. The shot isn't the best one, have to admit that, I couldn't help writing about the event and not mentioning them. :)))

 

But some people were deeply absorbed in all the presentations... Oh, and by the way, this shot was taken by Tigran Martirosyan (my beloved) while helping me out with "Shutters"/"Apertures" :))) I think this is one of best shots among all.

The event ended as messy as it started, as that many people attending the now had to approach their friends...

...and share their impressions :)))

PechaKucha Vol. 8 actually helped me to realize that I am not as interested in Photo Journalism as I am interested in Photo Stories so hope my upcoming posts will be dedicated to a Story of a Man…

Special thanks to InterNews for organizing the PechaKucha Night Vol 8, this was one of the best PechaKucha Nights I’ve seen and thank YOU for reading this spot till the end.