Karishok Dulyan

Karishok was born Karine Dulyan in Yerevan, where she studied painting from the age of four in different workshops and art classes. As a child, she never liked being told what to paint, she always found more interesting subjects from her own imagination.

At the age of five, she had her first solo exhibition in the Club of Yerevan Physics Institute, and following her art teacher's advice, thirty-two of her oil, gouache, pastel, and watercolor artworks were presented. Strangely enough, maybe due to her technical and mathematical way of thinking, which she inherited from her father, a theoretical physicist, she decided to become an architect.

After graduating from the Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction, she spent three years in Spain. She obtained a Master's in Arts and New Technologies and a Master's in Urbanism from Madrid Polytechnic University. After returning to her homeland, she spent ten years working with two leading architectural firms on big-scale educational and urban planning projects.

She realized that she couldn't spend any more of the precious time of her life sitting behind the computer and working on long-term projects, and she switched to tourism. She founded a company that created custom adventure tours throughout Armenia, including a variety of non-standard activities, such as paragliding, visiting local families, bread baking, horse-riding, rafting, canyoning, hiking. That was a fantastic experience of discovering Armenia with small multi-cultural groups, mixing locals with travelers from all over the world, and creating new friendships.

Early in 2019, she was commissioned to create a children's illustrated coloring map. That project marked the beginning of a new era in her life - she returned to art and painting. Soon she felt that although all the experiences she had were absolutely essential, the art and painting was where she belonged and what she was meant for from the very beginning.

Now she lives in Yerevan, Armenia, visiting LA from time to time. She works with watercolor, acrylics, ink, pastel, pencils, and other media, mainly on paper, canvas, and cardboard. She likes mixing and experimenting. Her works contain all her experiences as an architect, urban planner, traveler and are soaked with her childhood memories and dreams.