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Born in 1966 in Armenia (a republic in former
Soviet Union), Naira Barseghian began painting as a teenager, influenced by an
older cousin who painted as a hobby. Naira's interest in art led her to
the University of Fine Arts and Theatre in Yerevan, the largest city and capital
of Armenia, where she majored in industrial design. During her university
years, Naira broadened her artistic range and further developed her oil and
watercolor painting techniques by studying with leading Russian artists.
Naira emigrated to the US in 1991, where she
enrolled in community art classes, learning the basics of throwing and
hand-building ceramics, becoming quickly enamored of the process. she
quickly developed a reputation as a talented ceramic artist, and in 1995,
Glendale Community College, California, bestowed its "Artist of the
Year" award upon her. From then on, Naira has worked hard to continue
dramatically improve her art, aided by the influence and critique of her husband
Rafik, who studied fine arts and sculpture at the University level in Austria
from 1978-1982.
As a guest artist and studio designer, Naira
has taught numerous local workshops on throwing and under glaze painting
techniques at schools, festivals, ceramic studios, including Color Me Mine in
Larchmont and Studio City, California, and at museums, including the Japanese
Museum of Art in Los Angeles.
Recently, Naira and Rafik have combined their
talents in the Sunland Studio attached to their house to create ceramic tile
wood tables, wall sculptures and functional pottery, all inspired by nature's
countless variations of shapes, colors, and plays of light. Their three
young children, who happily make use of all of the varied materials and hands-on
instructions available in mom and dad's studio, visit them throughout the day.
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