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Marine Madatyan

Rozita Alikhanova: Armenian Artist from Tbilisi Selected to Study in U.S.

- Rozita, Rozita?

- Yes, Elvina.

- This morning a small bird brought me the news that you have a new landscape painting. Was the bird correct?

At first Rozita was taken aback. Smiling, the girl then ducked the guess made by her neighbor. As quickly as she appeared, Rozita disappeared in one of the squat old buildings in the Havlabar neighborhood of Tbilisi. We continued to walk with her through the streets.

The paintings of this 20 year-old are greatly anticipated by all who know her.

Rozita Alikhanova is a fourth year student at the Tbilisi College of the Arts and Humanities.

She’s one of the three students who have been selected to spend the current academic year studying in the United States.

Violetta Alikhanova knows exactly how her grand-daughter has reached such success - "She paints day and night."

Rozita confides that sometimes she’ll stay up all night just to finish a painting to her liking.

The girls says that while she also wants to work in order to help out with the $2,000 tuition, it wouldn’t allow her ample time to paint.

Flora, the young artist’s mother, says Rozita’s painting comes first, even though the family could use the extra money.

The first critics of Rozita’s art are the family members themselves. The girl’s two uncles and their families live in the same courtyard. They stopped their daily chores to organize an impromptu art exhibit, hanging the wool art pieces on the clothesline for all to see.

Rozita learnt the technique at the college. "It’s called "kecha", says Violetta, remembering the old Armenian term for painting on wool. Rozita has improvised by using oil paints.

Flora points to one of her favorites. "I really like this one ," she says. "My daughter doesn’t study painting separately in school. She creates what she feels."

Spotting a painting that Rozita made of an Armenian church, I figured she’s been to Armenia.

"I’ve never visited Armenia. I saw the church in a photo and then painted it with oils," says Rozita.

Rozita doesn’t speak Armenian and understands very little. Her mother, Flora, understands Armenian but was speaking Russian. Grandma Violetta both spoke and understood the language.

We walked with Rozita to the Hayartoun educational/cultural center, the site of her first exhibition that recently took place.

There we met with Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan, Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Georgia. Bishop Vazgen asked Rozita in Armenia if she paints and the girl, in Armenian, answered "yes".

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