In Manuscripts, all works begin with handmade paint. The pigments used are sourced from across Armenia, including the regions of Lori, Tavush, Kotayk, and the mining town of Shamlugh. Combined with oils, waxes, charcoal, and other traditional medium, this material establishes both the physical and conceptual foundation of each work.

Manuscripts is heavily informed by an ongoing engagement with Armenian books, photographs, sheet music, archival imagery, and printed ephemera spanning the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. During the painting process, this reference material remains active within the studio, gradually accumulating ink, charcoal, loose pigment, fingerprints, and other traces of making. This build-up is integral to Manuscripts. Many of these archival materials are also pressed directly into wet paint, where transferred traces of language, architecture, monuments, and historical imagery are continued onto the canvas. This transference from one visual language to another, from paper to canvas, art print to book cover, and photograph to paper, is central to the artist’s practice. Through the deliberate transference of venerable forms across media, ancient themes are carried into a contemporary context and unified by the use of handmade Armenian pigment.

Manuscripts aims to open onto broader themes of cultural imagery and symbolism. The series begins with reference images, yet resists treating them as fixed records. A mountain, monument, or fragment of architecture first appears as an image on paper, but through the act of tracing and translating, it becomes alive within the works. It is this continual translation process that gives the works their shape, allowing cultural identity and ancient forms to emerge through contemporary painting.