Arman Badeyan: “Living in Dilijan and not being creative is a crime”

Living in Dilijan and not being creative is a crime. It’s about any type of creativity. You can draw, take photos, write, embroider, and come up with some crazy projects. Imagine and dream after all!

I tried everything related to creativity, such as painting, carpet weaving, engraving, graphics, jewelry craft, etc. How else could it be? After all, it is impossible to live in a different way here. Yet at the crack of dawn, you want to create, contemplate, and build.

Although I am open to everything new, my main occupation is painting. There are no “isms” for me here, just like any type of art, and I don’t limit myself to the framework of one direction. Nevertheless, I paint mostly landscapes. And this is quite predictable because it is impossible to live in Dilijan and paint something else.

Can you get tired of this place? No, because the nature here is always different, the mountains here are different. Sometimes they are lost in the clouds, sometimes clear, sometimes drowning in greenery, sometimes fiery red. Dilijan is beautiful in all seasons.

And how it changes the way people think, and their attitude to life. Everyone who comes to Dilijan is filled with creativity. This works already when you enter the city, on the serpentines.

There is a stereotype that Dilijan residents are lazy. I'll be honest and spice it up a little bit. It's true. The Dilijan landscape, unlike other Armenian landscapes, is quite soft. And this greenery, these forested mountains are a real “relaxation” for the locals. They are always calm and relaxed. And it so happened that they are lazy. (laughs)

Arman Badeyan is an artist, founder of the studio and jewelry brand BuduArt, and director of the Local History Museum, and National Gallery of Dilijan. He’s a native Dilijanian.