I had the opportunity to find out many things, to think, to know the good from the bad." The agency sent Araradian on his first visit to the United States in 1964, a trip that included stays in several states including New York, California, and Wisconsin. " For my success, for my ability, that center helped a lot. After 20 years, he had worked his way up to a position as the art director. He began as a cartoonist, drawing for the agency's publications. He moved to Beirut, worked for Aztag daily, and married Maro Der Ghougasian, with whom he had two sons.įrom 1955 to 1975, Araradian worked with the now-defunct United States Information Agency, which was dedicated to fostering understanding of the United States in foreign countries. He then placed drawings in Armenian newspapers. " I started drawing in Aleppo in Arabic newspapers," Araradian says. So, this is why until today, I cannot draw large." A career spanning continents And they give it to me the next year as a gift. " All my relatives, they never tear them out they bend it. When I was 10 years old, 12 years old, there is no paper in Aleppo." Instead of sketchbooks, Araradian was forced to use the backs of daily calendars. So I start to beg, can you give them to me." " There was no black paper," Araradian says about the material needed to make silhouettes, " I went to the photographer, who had negative papers. During World War II, materials were scarce and expensive. To practice his art, Araradian had to battle more than unimpressed teachers and well-meaning parents. I started to draw cartoons, to exaggerate, to see whatever I like to see, whatever I like to show." I read in the cartoons more character in the person than any photograph. " I liked cartoons because I could read cartoons. Many of his teachers didn't appreciate what he was doing. " In school, I paid attention to drawing more than to the lessons," Araradian says. And my father went to the boss and said, ‘My son is doing good?'" The shop owner showed him what his son had been doing: drawings. " Father put me there because the boss of that molding place was an artist also," Araradian says, " but he had turned into a businessman. At age 14, Araradian was sent to work at an Aleppo shop. But his father was sure it would be a solid profession for the young boy.
He certainly didn't have the desire to become a mechanic. He even recruited his friends to pose for the cutout silhouettes that he taught himself to make.
" I fight with my pencil." You want to be a what?Īt the age of ten, Massis Araradian had discovered the magazines with political cartoons that were tucked away in his parents' drawers. " Soldiers fight Turks with their guns," he says. “Soldiers fight Turks with their guns, I fight with my pencil.”
0 kommentar(er)
