Varoujan’s Symphony of Colors
by Rosario Teixeira

Worcester, MA - On I-290 W, a 14 feet by 48 feet billboard greets motorists passing the Worcester area, announcing Varoujan’s Symphony of Colors art exhibit at DZian Gallery, located at 65 Water Street, Worcester, now open through October 15th, 2006, and inviting the public to a reception September 16th from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. DZian Gallery, which recently opened in Worcester, showcases international contemporary artists, and in a smaller scale is reminiscent of the New York International Art Expo. The gallery is a pleasant space where the visitor is welcomed by friendly owners Gina and David Papazian.

The larger than life image on the billboard is a detail from Varoujan’s painting Serenade. The image is suggestive of playfulness, joy and romance, the undercurrents in Varoujan’s art. The artist, Daniel Varoujan Hejinian is represented by Collectors Palette, and his romantic expressionist paintings can be found in fine art galleries in the United States. His art work is present in private, corporate and museum art collections around the world. Samples of Varoujan’s paintings may be viewed at www.CollectorsPalette.com, as well as more information about the artist and directions to the gallery.

During the reception, Saturday, September 16th from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., while the musicians play classical music, Varoujan will perform a demonstration, translating with his colors on canvas the emotions evoked by the music. Each note reflects a color and the combination of all the notes in one musical composition, create a colorful symphony. The reverberating strings snapping emotions will burst into colors on canvas. Thus Varoujan will create a physical representation of the music, because “music has no physical existence, it pleases the ears and purifies the soul,” said Varoujan, and he adds, “The mystery of transforming music through colors is wondrous like the metamorphosis of a butterfly, it is a magical moment.” The artist will make that magical moment happen before our eyes.

Music brings memories, viewed through the veils of time, and experienced within us in diffused forms and colors. Varoujan remembers growing up in a family home filled with music. In 1915 During the Armenian Genocide his Parents fled the eastern Turkey to Aleppo where Varoujan was born. His father often played the mandolin and other string instruments remembering the old city of Aintab. From an early age, Varoujan envisioned music with colors and fluid forms and he translated on canvas the moods and emotions expressed in the musical notes. Musical instruments, along with his love of life and women as symbols of life, are recurring themes in Varoujan’s paintings. The art work in the Symphony of Colors exhibit have rigorous compositions perfectly balanced with color, resulting in a harmonious intellectualization of a story and the expression of emotion. Varoujan uses the expansiveness of color from the Impressionists, combines the rigorousness of form and composition from the Romantics, and adds his unique expression that transports the composition from the physical onto the spiritual realm. His paintings are in a space between dream and reality, the images are an “exquisite mixture of peace and excitement” and the viewer finds his or her own memories represented in Varoujan’s paintings, depicting moments of joy or contemplation.

Symphony of Colors is a collection of paintings showcasing several of Varoujan’s series, Pearl, Celebration, Temptation, Melody, and Orchard Series. From the Pearl Series, Gentle Touch depicts a moment of communion, perennial as a persistent memory, and real as one's desire to belong and to be loved. Here love is gentle and accomplished. From the Celebration Series, The Magic Lamp is the symbol of love that brings lovers together. The light surrounds the lamp as if it had overflowed onto the outer layers of space and time. The musician can always play the instrument in troubled times, but it is the magic of love that turns a cold winter night onto a spring full of possibilities, rich with textures, scents and colors. In Temptation of the Fisherman II, from the Temptation Series, the mermaid is somewhere between reality and dream, blend with the sun and the ocean in a bright morning. The yellow sleeker of the fisherman contrasts with the tropical innuendo of the painting. Amidst the tempest in the night, he dreamt of her and afraid she'll vanish in the morning sun, he holds on to the dream. She's a reflection of the sun light and the sea made real by his belief in the dream. He greets the new day knowing that there is much more beyond the darkness of the night. The dynamic of this painting gives the viewer the impression of movement and warmth. In Sisters, from the Melody Series, the dichotomy of our existence is present in the metaphor of the two sisters. One blonde symbolizing the morning radiating with sunshine and playing a violin, and one brunette symbolizing the night playing the piano. Opposites of each other, they are both beautiful and the viewer can not choose one for they complete each other, just as the light completes the darkness and without the morning the night would have no meaning. The soft earthly tones in Pomegranate Eaters, from the Orchard Series, take the viewer into the intricacies of tone, as through the multiple facets of a diamond.

Varoujan is an International artist who studied Art in Yerevan Armenia during the Soviet era. He combines the academic classic training with an unbound creativity and talent. He’s also a humanitarian who has contributed to worthy charitable causes. He’s the creator and founder of Peace of Art, Inc., a non-profit organization that uses the universal language of art to bring awareness to the global human condition and to promote peaceful solutions to conflict. For more information log onto www.PeaceofArt.org. Varoujan will exhibit his art work at the Hampshire House, Beacon Hill in Boston on September 20th, and at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge on October 21st. His Peace of Art collection will be exhibited at the Medford City Hall during the month of October, a reception will be held on October 5th from 7 to 9 p.m.