Local artist meets with Gorbachev
by Judy Buswick

Chelmsford artist Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, met world-leader Mikhail Gorbachev recently and shared an idea for a global art exhibit. Because Hejinian had studied art at the Institute of Fine Arts of Yerevan in Soviet Armenia as a youth, he had been invited to show his paintings at a reception for Gorbachev held at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston in June.

Gorbachev, as guest of honor, spoke to the dinner guests in a "very positive way about the future," said Chelmsford resident Judy Mosgrove who was at the reception with her husband Bob. The Gorbachev Foundation of North America at Northeastern University is a non-partisan organization dedicated to addressing the central concerns facing humanity at the beginning of the new millennium.

Hejinian, who signs his art work "Varoujan," is in the process of developing a traveling art exhibit that would address world issues on hunger, crime, health-care and other globally significant topics.

Varoujan, studied for his Ph.D. in art in the Soviet Union but had been denied artistic freedom. He was forced to take assignments for government building and factories, painting images of somber factory workers, soldiers and peasants. He exhibited in Moscow, Kiev and Petrograd by applying Communist-sounding titles to any colorful paintings.

"My soul needed color and poetry," he explained about his need to emigrate. Varoujan decided to quit his degree program and seek artistic expression in the Boston area in 1979. He has not regretted leaving behind his paintings and works-in-progress commissioned by Soviet bureaucrats. In Watertown and later in Chelmsford, the artist made a home for himself, his wife Gayane, his daughter Betty, now 19, and his son Armen, now 17.

Equally important, he developed his artistic abilities and followed his heart with paintings that are rich in color and imagination.

Now almost 20 years later, Varoujan was able to praise Gorbachev for bringing democracy to the Soviet states and winning a Nobel Peace Prize.

Varoujan's art career had flourished under democracy and he sells his paintings through the Dyansen Gallery on Newbury Street and in the Trump Tower in New York. He paints religious murals in churches across the country, including 46 life-sized paintings in St. Vartanantz Church in Chelmsford. He is currently creative art director for AK Media, the outdoor advertising giant in Stoneham.

Varoujan's dream is to set up a global exhibit at the turn of the new century. "I have always been optimistic in my paintings and I want to show how the world could be better if problems were solved on a global level," he said. His dream seemed fit well with the Gorbachev Foundation's efforts to address economic, political and social issues facing humanity since the end of the Cold War.

The Moscow-based Gorbachev Foundation last year established a branch in the Boston area with the help of Northeastern and a board of founding directors from business, politicians, and academia who serve as advisors and aid in developing projects including developing policy recommendations on the world economy.

Varoujan found Gorbachev to be "a very gentle man, pleasant. He took time to listen." The next step is for the artist to discuss his project further with dignitaries met at the Gorbachev reception and with other international contacts. One artist and one world leader together. This is how global events come into existence.