Sun, Rain, & Loving Heartbeats

The Art of Annie Salatyan

by Amer Hanna Fatuhi

For many close people, friends and associates, Annie Salatyan is a well-known intellectual in the fields of Armenian culture, fashion design, media and artwork industry. They may also know that she is a very talented craftswoman when it comes to creating and displaying unique crafts made of mixed media since the mid 90s.
However, a few close artists and friends know that Annie is an inspiring visual artist who quietly worked a long time away from the clamor of the art-world so that she could enjoy art the way roses enjoys the sun and the rain. Art for Annie is like living inside a flower that gives others nothing but splendid beauty and a breathtaking scent.
 
Her passion toward art and the appreciation of the world from a tiny grain of sand to the wide and infinitive universe is like nonstop loving heartbeats that follows a melodic scale based on a mix of an internal violin and saxophone!  
 
Although Annie has already replaced the common brushes and the standard colors with beads, seashells, glitters, fabric and many more materials, every artwork of Annie is no less than a masterpiece that could easily reflects her deep feelings, her feminine touches, and her kind glowing soul.
 
Annie is known for her positive stance toward humanity regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc, yet like all Armenian women who were born in Baghdad , she loves like air and water. Annie is also known for her relentless love for nature and all creatures that fly, swim, or walk earth; she is in love with Ararat Mountain, the sweetest grapes and pomegranates of her ancestors' Armenian village Zeitun which represents the Armenian unity as well as the Tulipa armena, one of the most common Armenian flowers besides the Iraqi rose. This unbelievable love of her ancestors' homeland and the Armenian language she speaks fluently, in addition to Arabic, English, French, and some Chaldean (modern Aramaic). Thus, she was encouraged to start her new mural art project The Armenian Alphabets.
 
I had the pleasure and the honor of sitting with Annie when she was working on her first steps to making this mural artwork using her wonderful skills and the tools that were easily moved by her flexible fingers like magician’s wand. What amazed me the most is her big smile when she works all the way from point A to point Z. Sometimes, I think her smiles are like unspoken spells that can reshape artistic materials in the way Annie wishes!
 
I asked Annie if she has a specific place in her mind for this artwork when it is finished. She looked straight into my eyes and said: an Armenian museum or a cultural center, but unfortunately we do not have either one in Michigan!
I strongly believe that any entity that would host such a masterpiece is lucky. I hope that this beautiful artwork will find its way to the right place where people, Armenians and others who appreciate art, would enjoy and admire this unique and inspiring work of art. It is now up to the Armenian people and those who appreciate art to make the call."
 
To learn more about the Art of Annie Salatyan, we invite you to visit her professional page at:

www.EA-ArtG.com
 
Amer Hanna Fatuhi, Visual Artist & Art Critic
Member of the International Association of Art iia, Paris 1986
Former Art Critic Editor & Director of Art Department 1980-1984 Arts (Funoon) Magazine