Painting with your entire body

The art of painting is a physical experience as much as an emotional one. I remember when I first began to paint, I would work only with my fingers. Then I began to use my wrist, then my elbow, eventually I started using my shoulder and after many years I realized that I was using my entire body to paint. Now, painting has become a kind of a dance, where my body and soul harmonize and move together, and this is why music has become an integral part of the process of painting. Music gives rhythm to my emotions and makes me dance for the canvas.
Physicality is crucial to the process of creation; otherwise the act of painting can hardly serve as an outlet. Even when I am writing, I try to make the process as physical as I can. I always start by writing in my notebook and only after I have the rough draft in longhand I put it in the computer, which basically becomes a rewrite and turns the piece into a first draft.
Remember, art is a messy business, you can’t create and stay clean at the same time.
The painting above is one of my latest works. Photo: Melissa Mazman
Here’s a little clip of me painting. Video: Avo Kambourian https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0IJY1fuyb8