“All I ever wanted my paintings to say to the viewer in that given moment of contact is for them to feel the deepest part of their own sacred heart”
Ani
Ani was born into an Armenian family in Marseilles France.
Her family came to America, when she was very young. She grew up among artists and loved her ethnic Armenian music, delicious foods and loving family which was the first muse into her passage for the passion of painting.
She studied at the High School of Music and Art, where she received many awards, The Art Students League in New York, where she received the Nessa Cohen Grant to study at The New York Studio School, with painter and mentor Nicholas Carone.
Today she lives, paints and enjoys her family in Duchess County New York, with her husband Steven, and their daughter Maia.
When visiting Ani and her paintings, Robert Bly compared her archetypal women to the women adored in Hafiz’s and Rumi’s love poems.
One of my greatest pleasures as a young artist was to meet one of my favorite painters Arshile Gorky’s sister, at a family reunion and to learn she is related through my Aunt Margaret Tashjian. We spoke for hours sharing thoughts on life and art and was touched deeply in my heart when told how closely they resembled conversations she had with her brother.