Next year, the village of Argel in the Kotayk region will have its own
wood-engraving home/museum. Engraver and illustrator Arsen Panosyan,
who is also a resident of the village, will be the one to open the
doors of the museum and welcome the public.
Arsen is getting ready to remodel his home and surround it with his
creations. The home/museum will be his present to the villagers living
in Argel. “My home already looks like a museum what with all the
creations. If a tourist comes around here he most definitely pays a
visit to the museum. I have already left this home/museum as a will to
the village. All I need to do is remodel it a little so they can come
and see it.” The home/museum will serve as a memory of Panosyan and his
sons.
Arsen Panosyan is grateful for his uncle and teacher of wood-engraving,
famous doctor and sculptor Hovsep Markaryan for his successes in
engraving. “However,” he says, “if it wasn’t for Yervand Kochar, I
would have become an actor. It was Kochar who encouraged me to continue
wood-engraving. He used to tell me that I could become a professional
in any field, but if I were to continue engraving, I would become not
only a professional, but rather, Arsen Panosyan. I listened to him and
I don’t regret it.”
It is proven that students tend to exceed their masters. “Well-known
wood-engravers Hakob Naghashyan and Hakob Azatyan were monolayer
wood-engravers, but my uncle, Hovsep Markaryan, has perfected himself
enough so that he can create two-layer wood-engravings. My son has
engraved three layers, while my other son, Paruyr, has reached the
four-layer. I am still amazed at how it is possible to engrave four
layers. My younger son has engraved three layers, but I hope that he
can do the four-layer too.”
Arsen Panosyan has taught the secrets of wood-engraving to sixty seven
students, yet Arsen is only satisfied with five of the students’ works.
Two of those five students are his sons. The only thing that Arsen is
worried about is the fact that wood-engraving is like technical work
for his students. There is no creative approach. “I will only rest in
peace knowing that my sons will start engraving their own creations.”
He claims that Paruyr has already started doing that. “He has his own
creations, yet at the same time he fears of not repeating himself.”
Arsen Panosyan has created more than 60 pieces of work during his life.
Panosyan considers his masterpiece to be the big vase with the
multi-layer engraving and he has received a medal in the name of
“Movses Khorentsi” for that. “I worked on that vase for 23 years, six
to twelve hours daily,” says Arsen. He has also received three major
prizes by participating in international festivals throughout the
years. The engraver believes that if one wants to do a wood-engraving
by multi-layer, he must have a wide spectrum and patience. He is still
amazed at how his son has engraved a four-layer cross-stone. That took
him 9 years. “Now, if someone comes to my home and wants to buy
something, I say a price which the consumer can not afford. I just
don’t have the will to give away my priceless creations,” says Arsen.
However, he has been forced to sell some of them. He especially
remembers his engraving entitled “Sasuntsi Davit” which is 7 meters and
21 centimeters in diameter. The engraving presents all the heroes of
the famous Armenian epic and currently, it belongs to the private
collection. “I won a gold medal for the “Sasuntsi Davit” engraving in
Moscow in 1985. I have heard that Margaret Thatcher loved that
engraving so much that she wanted to see it in London. However, at the
time, the government did not allow such transactions to be made, and
they reasoned that the engraver had not agreed to such a thing and did
not sell it. But I was forced to sell the engraving during the dark
years of Armenia,” recalls A. Panosyan.
Currently, the 65 year old engraver lives in his native village. He is
very active in the village and he is a member of the alderman council.
However, Arsen’s worries are not limited to all that goes around in the
village of Argel. Nowadays, he is most concerned about the
constitutional amendments. He says: “I have created my own constitution
in my heart and I would like that constitution to be applied.”
According to Arsen’s “constitution of the heart”, public figures must
be the ones carrying out the actions at the National Assembly. “The
only people who have the right to be at the National Assembly are
intellectuals, including academicians, scientists, and professionals
from all fields. They should be the ones making decisions at the
National Assembly. What does the “authoritarian” young man have to do
at the National Assembly or what can the businessman say about passing
a law about the state language?….If intellectuals govern the nation,
then we will see how corruption disappears.”