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Svetlana Bagdasaryan
artcbeta@gmail.com
www.artcbeta.com
It is not often a scientist leaves the world of facts, analysis, formulae and methodical experimentation to take up brushes, paints and charcoals to become an artist. It rarely happens by career choice, and in the case of Sveta, it happened not by choice but because of an accident. Sveta was born in the family of a physics professor and doctor. Both her elder brother and sister studied for their degree in physics and following their example Sveta did not consider any other option than science when it came to choosing her profession. She spent five years to get her masters in physics, and another eight to obtain a PhD in chemistry. After graduation she went on to work as a research scientist in the Institute of Applied Problems of Physics in Erevan, Armenia, shaking dimethyltryptamine cocktails and making puzzles of free radicals in catalyst reactions. Back then, she thought of it as a calling but, since the accident, she is not so sure… What happened one day, not so long ago, totally changed Sveta’s life and dissipated her love for catalyst reactions.
The day had begun like any other. She had woken to the sounds of her German shepherd dog “mumbling” in his sleep and, after breakfasting, she looked forward to enjoying the sunny day. A while later, while she was in the backyard Sveta heard the phone ring inside and hurried towards the house to answer it. In her haste she bumped head-on into the closed transparent sliding doors.
The doctors, who treated her, say she suffered a brain concussion. Sveta, however, prefers to refer to that instant as a “momentous accident.” The immediate effect was a loss of vision for a couple of hours and a constant buzz and chirping in her ears which persisted for a few months. But what is more significant is that when Sveta regained all her senses, she had no remembrance of her professional knowledge in physics or chemistry.
The knock on the head had totally changed her way of perceiving and understanding things. Before, Sveta had held no interest in painting, had no clue as to how to hold a brush, and showed no appreciation of color and composition; yet from that time on, she was seized by a need to paint. Within days of the accident she painted her first picture and in one year of creative frenzy, she produced a prolific body of 60 skillful artworks.
She remembers her first pictures were drawn with shaking emotion. Every new painting awed her and at the same time caused her to despair that she would not be able to improve as an artist.
“I often think that it is not me painting. I still can’t really believe how my own capabilities have grown,” she says. She is totally and constantly captured by the strong compulsion to paint. “I go to bed trying to figure out what I can paint next. I wake up in the morning, and the first thing that comes into my mind is again oils and canvas.”
Everything inspires Sveta. Once she starts, she just cannot stop, sometimes finishing 4-5 paintings in a week. “What I like about painting most is all the different ways I can interpret reality,” And indeed, her works depict real subject through distorted prism of color and fractured layered dimensions.
“I am not afraid of making a mistake and I am trying to learn things all the time, but there is something inside me, you can call it an intuition, something that tells me what will work.”
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* None of the artworks may be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Artist