34
THE LINK
Armenians at Arms: Uniting a Community Through Art ‘I do it because I’m proud of my ethnicity and cultural background, despite it’s painful history’
A.J. Salucci
T
solaire Mekhgeavakian is a Montreal-born artist concentrating her career on bringing awareness to the Armenian genocide. She is a fine arts education student and is teaching lessons in more ways than one. Growing up, she was always encouraged by her mother to pursue her interests in the arts. This relationship led her to establish her career in this multicultural city full of opportunity. The Armenian genocide began in 1915 and ended two years later, but Mekhgeavakian says that the effects are still felt to this day, especially since it is a genocide that is still unrecognized by its Turkish perpetrators. April 24 marks the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day to commemorate the victims of the genocide. This tragedy has displaced families, subjugated them to cruel deaths. Armenian children were also stolen to be raised under Turkish families, which robbed them of their culture. Through this brief retelling of the past, Mekhgeavakian warns us of the present as she fears that current land disputes from Azerbaijan with Turkish involvement may cause history to repeat itself. “For a people who have previously lost their land and have lived under the threat of cultural extinction, the 2020 conflict was a small taste of what our Armenian ancestors went through during the 1915 genocide. It was also a key influence on the trajectory that The History of My Blood series took,” said Mekhgeavakian. Her current goal is a series of paintings titled The History of My Blood, which is intended to celebrate her culture and raise awareness of the violence her people faced years ago. “I’m creating this series for the purpose of using art to raise awareness and educate people on the consequences that come with belonging to a diasporic group, The History of My Blood painting by Tsolaire Mekhgeavtold through an Armenian lens. To me, the series is a visual akian, also known as PicaTso. Courtesy Tsolaire Mekhrepresentation of everything I have felt and experienced as geavakian T HEL INK NE W SPA P ER .C A
