Armenian village 1929

Martiros Sarian made this ink drawing of an Armenian village with a quill or a very fine brush. Imagine him outside, rapidly mapping the landscape. He seems to have used only one implement that he dipped, again and again, into black ink, and then applied to the page with a kind of controlled frenzy. You know, drawing like painting is a way of thinking, of being in the world. I imagine that Sarian, living in an Armenian village, felt connected to the land and its people in an elemental way. You can almost feel the wind moving through the mountains. Look at the marks, the cross-hatching on the mountain—that is the kind of gesture that describes form and also, a kind of feeling. Sarian was probably influenced by other artists. It feels to me that we are all in an ongoing conversation, seeing and responding to each other's work across time. Sarian's drawing reminds us that art making embraces ambiguity, inviting multiple readings.