My art is an expression of my emotional state. I rarely plan a subject to be painted. I decompress via meditation and movement before I intuitively start painting. Therefore, my art is an abstract representation of what I am feeling at the moment.
Being a nurse as well as an artist adds to my creativity. Nursing and art have a symbiotic relationship for me. One cannot exist without the other. I get great inspiration from physically working with people and being next to them when they are so vulnerable. I take great pride in helping them find resilience and comfort.
Being an emotional person, I take my art as an outlet where I can poor all the feelings into color and let them flow and solidify into an expression of its own.
I had numerous occasions when people came up to me saying that my art was healing, and that they felt relaxed or got a surge of positive energy just by looking at my work. That is indeed a very high praise for me as an artist, as I aspire to lighten up, and surround my viewers with warmth and love through my art.
I am constantly exploring and finding inspiration from nature, people and music. I like to portray the entire depth of the feelings I experience by using dynamic color palettes and having contrast by using texture. Most influential artists for me have been, to name a few, Minas Avetisyan, Georgia O’Keeffe, Hilma af Klint and Wassily Kandinsky. Learning about their art made me grow and develop into who I am today. I don’t think one can ever stop learning, and I am sure that my art will evolve and change as I continue absorbing my surroundings.
Bio
Seda Melikyan is a New Jersey based artist born in Armenia in 1984. She has been drawing and painting since childhood. Being an artist was not encouraged in her family, but Seda took every opportunity to learn about art. When she moved to New York City in 2002, she was encouraged to pursue a Nursing degree, since she is also very passionate about taking care of people. While studying in Hunter College, she also took art classes. Living in NYC gave her a great opportunity to be near all the amazing museums and art galleries the city had to offer. She used to spend days at the Metropolitan Museum of Art studying, finding inspiration, and sketching paintings of the great artists.
Being primarily a self-taught artist, Seda had the freedom to explore a wide variety of mediums. She currently works primarily with acrylics, as well as inks and watercolors. In 2014, Seda also became interested in silk painting. She taught herself how to paint on silk by reading books, watching YouTube videos and contacting other silk artists and vendors for direction and advice. She finds silk painting a very relaxing and a unique art form where one creates wearable art.
Seda has displayed her work at numerous fairs and art shows. Her recent art shows were at the Hamazkain Art and Jass in 2019, Art in Fall in 2019, and the One Art Space Gallery in NYC in 2020.