Painter, photographer and poet Samvel Sevada has been in Armenia for a couple of months now. Samvel Sevada has lived in the United States for the past 16 years and has always painted; he has even opened up a children’s art school in Los Angeles where he has taught children of different ethnic groups how to express themselves through art. He has been the one and only chief painter of Yerevan between 1996 and 1998 and has tried to fix the melancholy image of Yerevan and make it more enlightened. Sevada doesn’t like the present day image of the city; he says that it has no “feature” and is developing eclectically. But he doesn’t complain too much about that because everything changes in the world. The painter, who considers himself as optimistic, is planning on opening an art school in Yerevan. Sevada is waiting with anticipation for the final furnishings of his studio and the first visit of his students. His studio located in the Nor Nork community of Yerevan has a great view. As you come out to the dirty, cemented yard you see the far mountains and blue skies ahead of you.
– How was Yerevan?
– It’s obvious that everything has changed. The people who have seen Paris in the 1930s complain that things are not what they used to be. There is practically nothing left from the “pink” Yerevan that we used to live in. It’s all crunched up. It’s obvious that it had to change and I don’t see anything wrong with that. Sometimes it shines brilliantly, then becomes dark, wilts like a flower. Time changes things. The city is like a living organism and changes with us. I usually look on the bright side of things.
– Was life easier back in the Soviet Union?
– Back then, citizens felt more secure because they knew that they could complain to someone about something. The Soviet city council, the regional secretary, the central committee, finally, you had Moscow. People even used to write letters and send it to Lenin’s tombstone. But now, whom can the average worker complain to? Every state official considers himself as a regional secretary and every municipality feels like Lenin. But of course back then, we had no freedom of speech and similar things.
I have worked during that time and have even had some positions. I founded an art school and a museum in the city of Abovyan; it was a success.
– Is the teacher-student tie important when teaching art?
– It’s good when you know there’s someone from whom you can learn. There are some people from whom you can learn a lot just by their presence. I want to open an art school in Yerevan. I have had more than 70 students back at my art school in Los Angeles. That was the first Armenian art school where most of the students were Armenian. We used to organize many art exhibitions, even in Yerevan, Moscow, Gyumri, Abovyan.
– What is the art school in Yerevan going to be like?
– Well, I’m obviously not going to work the same way I do in Los Angeles. I’m talking about the work and methods of teaching. I am going to provide the materials; I am simply waiting for the paints and brushes to arrive in Yerevan from L.A. Anyone who wants to learn how to paint can come to the school. People between the ages of 5 and 105 could study at the Sevada Art Center in L.A. That will stay the same here too. People of different ethnic backgrounds and age used to come to my studio back in America. I have already seen many kids around where I live in Yerevan who have nothing to do and keep asking me when it will be open. I just have to furnish the studio. I have come to Armenia to work. Of course, I haven’t said good-bye to America because all my relatives are there. I will simply go and come back.
– What made you go to America?
– It just turned out that way. Generally, I like to travel the world. At the time, I thought to myself that nothing horrible would happen if I just went for a visit, see America and come back. Of course, at first it was difficult, I was with my family, I felt lost. I only had $100 dollars when I first went to America. But after a couple of months ago, I had all I wanted: an art studio and a school. I am usually optimistic, I always see something good in anything. I always say to my friends that even if I find myself in a desert, I will try to find somewhere comfortable so that I can feel good.
– Can you earn a living by selling paintings and what role should private exhibitions play?
– I have earned a living in the States by selling my paintings and have sold over 450 of them at fairly good prices. People are not that used to buying and selling paintings in Armenia, but we are slowly getting there. I see a great change compared to the 1990s. The ways of showing that have to change. For example, when I organized an art exhibition at Moscow’s well-known artist’s central home, I had attracted the public eye with the way I show my art and the entire environment. The visitors were not coming just to view the art. It turned out that there were some buyers among them. Besides that, I had hired some ladies to give information about each painting and tell the history and the creative process.
– What does the price of a painting depend on?
– The price of a painting is very relative. It all depends on the myths about the artist. One painting by Van Gogh sells for 129 million dollars nowadays, but none of his paintings were worth anything while he was alive. Nobody used to give even 10 francs for Modigliani’s paintings, but now they are very expensive. Taste changes over time and the strong people are the ones that change their tastes. Rome’s Pope didn’t like Boticelli’s art and had his paintings covered. Then times changed and Boticelli’s paintings were brought out into the light from under Rafael’s paintings; it was then that people realized the mastery of the artist who had been ignored.
– Does America place emphasis on taste?
– Of course, everyone knows that. And not only taste. America is a very free country, but at the same time it has puritan ethics. For example, showing a woman’s open breast on television causes alarm in America, while here that has turned into a usual thing. If a woman’s breast is shown, then that television network will close soon. You might get sued for glancing at someone awkwardly. If you slap a child, you may get sentenced. Now, we can consider that as either progress or not.
-Perhaps it’s more ridiculous.
– It can even get up to the point where it’s ridiculous. In schools, children are taught to call the police in case their parents molest them. There are downsides in America, but it’s the most powerful country. Take for instance the city of Gyumri where I am from. So many years have passed since the earthquake and the city is still facing hardships. In America, an entire city went under water and got back on its feet after a couple of months.
– Is it because of our authorities?
– Not only. The people have to be in charge, especially each person for himself. It seems as though citizens have gotten used to everything. Adapting to everything leads to the point where citizens don’t want to take part in anything. I’m talking about constructing relations between people, and not the large construction going on in the city. People have to get connected again. The government has to work with the people and talk about the ethics that have become part of our everyday lives. People live in clean, planned out buildings, but the entrances and yards of their buildings are dirty. Take a look at how dirty my yard is; many people simply throw their trash out into the yard. I get out and sweep my yard every day. Of course, I can pay someone to do that for me, but I am doing it on purpose so that people can see me doing that and feel ashamed, so that they won’t throw anything from their balconies anymore. The same goes for driving in the city. Cars run over people, it’s terrible. It’s not the excessive number of cars, but the indifference towards the law and each other, when there are police cars standing on the streets and you don’t know who they are waiting for. You can’t keep a people standing just by making references to glorious victories, Nzhdeh and Sevak, or having a couple of successful businessmen. But go and see what’s going on at the restaurants on the Hrazdan canyon. People think that rabiz music is good music. No, rabiz is a lifestyle. A person can wear a French costume or wear Italian shoes, but still be rabiz. People have to love and respect each other and accept the supremacy of the law. EVERYONE…that is the path to take and we have no alternative.
– You are living a rather introverted life in Yerevan now.
– Yes, to tell you the truth, I don’t communicate that much. It has gotten kind of hard to communicate with people. Before, everyone was equal and that had an impact on human relations. Years ago when I used to live here, I used to go the “Skvaznyak” café in the mornings. I loved getting to sit next to Yervand Kochar, Levon Nersisyan, Henrik Edoyan, Tigran Mansuryan, hear their conversations. I learned a lot from them. That group of great people moved from one café to the other and I was with them. Whenever I heard that they were discussing this or that book or film, I had to go and buy the book, read and discuss it with them the next day. But I can’t have the same conversations with people nowadays, it’s impossible. I have to be more careful and restricted.
– You have been the chief painter of Yerevan for two years. Can you tell a little about that?
– In 1996, then mayor Vano Siradeghyan invited me and Artur Meschyan to Yerevan to work. Artur was the chief architect of Yerevan at the time, while I was head of the government’s culture department. Both of us wanted to work using a new style and implement some good projects. After all, I had already learned and seen a lot by living in the U.S. that long. The one thing I remember and always will is when we put up the Christmas tree in the Republic Square. I had taken the initiative, of course, along with help from the mayor and well-known artists of the city. There was chaos at the square on the evening of January 13, 1997-there were about a million people there and the nearby streets were closed. It was very hard for us to get the people to calm down and move back from the stage. That was my first big job in Yerevan. But after a while, I realized that I couldn’t go on with that job. The government didn’t have money to pay salaries to the workers of the cultural institutions. I resigned from that job and we created a new department at the municipality-the chief artist department. Our main job was to be involved in the city’s look and regulating the billboards. We fixed a price for the first, foreign commercial. At the time, everyone hung the billboards wherever they wanted. It was like language, color and quality didn’t mean anything.
– Don’t you think that you could have done more?
– Of course. After that, a lot was done for the city. The government passed a “law on commercials”. The city started to take shape. What brought me and Artur Meschyan to Armenia was the will to do something good for our Homeland and the romantic style. But there were many problems, which we couldn’t do anything about. For example, some state official would call and tell me that he had to hang his billboard where he wanted. I told him that it’s not allowed. They used to call me and even threaten me. We were forced to go and take out some illegal billboard or kiosk with the police, but the next day we saw that it was in the same place. We could only work with inspiration and dedication. But you can’t really work like that for a long time. Now I want to do what I’m good at doing.