A few weeks ago, a friend came to visit me in Yerevan. She’s an artist, a mother of two beautiful kids, an owner of two beautiful dogs, and a wife to the guitarist of the anti-regime, anti-war, and therefore banned Russian rock band Pornofilmy.
She has worked as a waitress, a stewardess, a kindergarten teacher, and during it all she’s always made art — drawings, paintings, puppets, sculptures made of scrap, little video installations — but never really felt she could call herself an artist. That’s a big word, what right does she have to call herself that?
That’s been changing, slowly, over the past year. She manages, on some days better than others, to put the doubt and the labels aside and simply do work — or, to put it more accurately, play. Beautiful art appears as a result.
One day during her stay here, she came to me feeling restless and said “Give me an assignment. Some theme to make a drawing about.”
I said, “Ancient aliens.”
A few hours later, she showed me the result:
I posted it on Substack Notes.
One commenter responded, “I am pleased to report that Max Ernst’s brand of surrealism is still alive and well.” This made Lena’s day — most people we know aren’t even aware of Max Ernst (I barely am), but for Lena, he is a personal hero.
A word of encouragement sometimes goes a long way. The next day she made a new drawing showing a cycle of violence, from the victim to the perpetrator:
Lena packed her family and moved to Kazakhstan some months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Today, they are preparing to move to Tbilisi, Georgia. It’s a vibrant city that has artists and art galleries, and I hope to see Lena’s work displayed in one of them soon.
But in the meantime, I thought I could share some of it here. Psychopolitica can sometimes double as an art gallery too.
If these drawings make you feel something, please don’t hesitate to share, either by leaving a comment or sending me an email at nikita.s.petrov@gmail.com. I’ll forward everything to Lena. You never know what effects your words might have.
All the stuff posted above is drawings she made on her iPad during her one week in Yerevan. She has extensive archives, and I’ll share more in the weeks to come.
Today though, I want to focus on the one video that stands out to me as one of the purest and honest works I have seen, ever. There’s no title, but one word Lena associates with it is “violence.”
PsyPol subscriber Finn, from Spain, wants to sell his Orbipan “D Kurd” handpan drum for €900/£800. If you are interested, please see a video of him playing the handpan and reach out to him directly here.
I’m particularly drawn to the “cycle of violence” work. Wonderful.
Love this art. Would hang it in my house.