love street

To examine a work of art, one may take whatever he wishes from it. Exploring in to the depths of a work of art, one opens up pathways that venture beyond the heart and soul of its creator. These pathways lead to the history of many individuals, as well as that of art and society as a whole. In the next few pages we will use a drawing called Love Street as our gateway. We will venture in to the depths of an artist named Rene Efi Hakimian.

The essence that I felt when i looked at Love Street for the first time is perhaps what drew me to it. I get the feeling that Love Street is exactly what it declares to be. It could be because I saw those words on the bottom right hand corner of the picture, but I don't think so. The people in the drawing seem to have souls of their own. They are not merely figures. They seem more like personalities. I get the feeling that if Love Street is a real street, it is a place with immense spirit and passion, full of soul and positive vibrations. I think I would have loved this drawing simply from the title. What better of a place for our utopian heaven and our love than on the streets. Love Street is a place where I hope we can all visit some day.

I've had the privilege of knowing Rene for my entire life. He is my mother's cousin. This gave me the added privilege of being able to speak with him about himself and what "Love Street" meant for him. Love Street was drawn in Rene's first batch of drawings in the early nineties. I asked Rene what Love Street meant for him. He replied that Love Street is about "life on the street and the social interactions on the streets. It's about being amongst people and finding our way. To be on the streets and amongst people is a road to paradise." It was Rene's love for people that inspired him to study geography and sociology at the University of Albany. Rene said that in those years he was obsessed with how people adapt to the physical, social and even spatial environments around them. This emanates in Rene's personality as well as in many of his works. In my knowing Rene, I can say that he is loving of the people around him. His heart is within those around. He's been through the roughest times and has gotten through them to see a brighter day. In the early nineties Rene was in a state of deep depression. During that period, he went through and destroyed many of his drawings he had completed at this time. "Love Street" was one of these drawings. Now, only a replica exists. In Ninety-seven, he began painting again and using other media for his painting. He now paints in a cottage with a private teacher, and works in the field of Diamonds with his brother and cousins. Rene is now diagnosed as a Schizophrenic. Regardless, his life is now headed in a very positive direction. He says that he has been blessed with opportunity. "Life is about changing and improving one self based on your opportunity."

Rene mentioned some of the artists that stand out in his mind. Picasso, Van Gogh, Mattisse, and Shagal were among these people. Picasso he pointed out as being very productive in his works. "He expressed reality from a point of view that makes you think and feel good. He wasn't bothered by reality and took it for what it was." Though Rene admired Picasso in these ways, he also points out that Picasso was very arrogant. He was socially destructive and drove people crazy. Matisse is a mix of a surrealist and an expressionist. As Rene says, the neatness of his paintings cause one to contemplate. Rene mentioned that he admired Van Gogh, for the fact that his works are comparable to volcanic eruptions of emotion on his canvas. What Rene takes from Shagal is that he lived a long and healthy life until the age of ninety eight. His works have a sort of mystic quality. The traits that Rene admires in these few artists seem to come out in Love Street. Rene spoke of seeing the works of these artists. He describes museums as an almost therapeutic process of finding himself and adjusting to his art.

Rene describes Love Street as a piece of Flat Surrealism. I asked him what he meant by flat. He spoke of Dali as a surrealist who paints from feelings and emotions. He describes surrealism as coming from somewhere between thoughts and feelings. Rene's Flat Surrealism is from the unconscious mind, having to do with thoughts not feelings and an obsession with psychoanalysis. Rene's paranoia gives him anxious feelings. Thinking and rationalizing is what gets him through rather than his feeling.

By knowing Rene, I love how loving of a person he is. In the height of his depression, Rene spent most of his time helping friends and people who he thought had it worse than himself. He helped them in any way he could: both monetarily and emotionally. It is said that Rene's parents died when he was merely a young child. He told me that he doesn't believe that they dived. He said it may be symptoms of his schizophrenia, but he believes his parents are in paradise. He speaks of Love Street as a paradise beginning in the streets of Jerusalem. The brick work in Love Street are those very streets.

Through speaking to Rene, I learned new things about him. We spoke of art and I came to realizations about the life within art, both Rene's and in general. This paper offered less about art and more about a life, with little critical analysis. I hope that it has spawned an understanding of the art within life. Rene believes that everything in life is eternal. Art is the realization of eternity. If life itself is not eternal, then an artist's art, whatever form it may come in, will be.