Capturing the rainbow on canvas

Alexandra Manukyan paints a picture of life and art

by Anna Margaryan

Published: Saturday January 10, 2009

Alexandra Manukyan. Anna Margaryan

Glendale, Calif. - A symphony of colors, fluid lines, and femininity are the defining elements of Alexandra Manukyan's body of work.

"Art has been my air," says Manukyan. "When I hear music, I see it in colors. Those notes are in color to me."

One glance at Manukyan's work would be enough to confirm the truth behind her bold statement, for each work is bathed in a harmonious melody of color, light, and boundless emotion that can emanate only from the creative mind of one who sees the world through the spectrum of a rainbow.

"I grew up on art," Manukyan says. "Since my father was an artist, I've always seen how he works. When I close my eyes, I can picture him sitting around the table and painting. I don't know him in any other way."

Her father, Ruben Manukyan, a famed artist in Armenia, catapulted her early into a world measured in vibrant hues and imagery, after noticing that she possessed an innate understanding of color.

Labor of love

Manukyan, 32, honed her skills at the Kojoyan Institute before furthering her studies at the Yerevan Fine Arts Institute, where she was initially accepted into the design department before changing her major to graphic arts.

"For six years I studied at the Fine Arts Institute, during the worst times in Armenia, when it was cold, dark, and unlivable," Manukyan says as she recalls life in the Yerevan of the early 1990s. "I consider us not only heroes, but fanatics for having gone to class, because while painting with water colors [in winter], the water would freeze on the paper and turn into ice."

But those sacrifices certainly paid off, as Manukyan went on to exhibit her work at numerous art shows and galleries in the United States, beginning in 1995, and had her first major exhibition at the 1998 Los Angeles Art Expo. Her success at the show led to her decision to move to the U.S. in 1998, where she embarked on a career as a full-time artist.

"There isn't an Armenian venue where I didn't have a show," Manukyan says. "I had shows at schools, banquet halls, everywhere, and they have always been very successful."

Her latest art show took place at Jazzve Café in Sherman Oaks on December 5, 2008, when a crowd of art enthusiasts milled about the makeshift gallery and marveled at her work.

Though the venue was smaller than what the artist is used to, the reception she and her work received was extremely warm and welcoming.

"This was probably my smallest exhibition," Manukyan says. "I gifted this show to myself, like a dedication in a book."

The "gift" came in the wake of Manukyan's return from the Las Vegas Art Expo in September, when she found herself with little to do.

"I would take my three-year-old son to school and he would cry and I would sit in the car alongside him and cry," Manukyan recalls. "One day I realized that I was completely alone in all that crying and my problems, so I knew I had to do something in order to regain a sense of myself."

The exhibition at Jazzve Café featured 40 of Manukyan's "serious" works, as she likes to refer to her large-scale paintings, as well as dozens of paintings and small illustrations by her father.

The exhibition also showcased some of Manukyan's hand-painted pillows, which, along with her hand-painted silk dresses and lampshades, serve as merely another form of canvas for the artist. Manukyan uses a variety of media including acrylic, oil, pastels, ink, and even one-of-a-kind textured fabrics.

"I want to create something new, something beautiful," remarks Manukyan, who is as ever fearless in her willingness to expand the themes and subject matter of her work.

The feminine element

Manukyan is as feminine and adventurous in the way she presents herself as she is in her artworks. Dressed in a black and white polka dot princess gown with hot pink sash, she was indeed the belle of the ball at the art show, gliding around the room, socializing with visitors, and embodying the image of the dynamic, energetic artist.

With titles like "Mystery of a Secret," "March, April, and May," and "Eastern Song," Manukyan's artworks rested on easels and walls throughout the café. The gentleness of the lines, elegance in detail, and panorama of colors hinted at the female hand that had painstakingly created each painting.

"Even if I weren't present at the exhibition, the viewer would still know the artist was a woman because the lines are so delicate," Manukyan says.

The feminine spirit is the guiding element in her extensive collection, manifesting itself subtly in some pieces - for instance, in the form of a blossoming bouquet of flowers - and in others dominating the canvas with a carefully outlined visage of a woman.

Each painting is bathed in an array of color such as glittering golds, Chinese-dragon reds, royal blues, cotton-candy pinks, and pale purples. The colors, though inhabitants of different sides of the color wheel, beautifully complement one another, each seeming to capture and mirror a distinct moment in the artist's spiritual and emotional journey.