Circles, Birds, and Vegetation for Armenia

In 1977 my mother Alice (Aghavni) Mashoian Walrath, my father David, my younger sister Suzy, and I landed at the airport in Yerevan, Armenia, then a state in the Soviet Union. During the genocide seven of her father Yeghishe's sisters escaped from Van to the lands that would become Soviet Armenia. The genocide also brought one of her mother Oghidar's older brother's, Sarkis Troshagirian, there from Palu. Alice had more first cousins in Hayastan (Armenia) than she did in the United States and we were meeting all of them for the very first time. I was young and enchanted by connecting to my Armenian roots while Alice was haunted by what might have been her fate. She kept imagining herself a cog in the Soviet bureaucracy instead of a college educated biologist and teacher who loved opera, ballet, and books. For me, this trip planted a seed that I finally harvested in 2012-2013 when I returned to Armenia as a Fulbright scholar to create art and writing about ageing in this ancient culture based on my graphic memoir series Aliceheimer's which uses cut up books in its illustrations. I was based at American Univeristy of Armenia's School of Public Health guiding students, nearly all of whom were young women, pursuing their Master's of Public Health. 

My first day out walking in Yerevan, banners flew everywhere proclaiming Yerevan as the UNESCO Book Capital of 2012. Armenia, boasts literacy rates of ninety six percent even with university education out of reach for most citizens. The Matenadaran, a stunning museum of illuminated manuscripts stands on a hillside of one of the city's main thoroughfares and I was there to cut up books. So I went to the open air market, found a Soviet era atlas and an old publication from the Matenadaran, that had already had some bits cut from it and used them to make this series of collage drawings. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the genocide, I translated these images into a limited edition of one hundred of archival pigment prints.

Circles, Birds, and Vegetation have contributed to supporting the Children of Armenia Fund (CoAF),  Dilijan’s United World College, and the Women’s Support Center in Yerevan.   I share with all these groups a deep belief in capacity building, supporting women, and creating a fair, healthy, and just Armenia. Please contact me if these images could serve your organization.