Azar Berenjian

About

I've always joked about only being able to draw "when I'm sad". In reality, it's partially true. Art has been my outlet since prior to knowing how to read. When an idea came to my mind, I'd scribble it out; this still remains true. If you've ever experienced that feeling where you imagined something perfectly in your head— that is what I try to bring into real life. It only took my 1st year of college when I realized I wanted to pursue creativity at a professional level. Now having recently graduated from San Jose State University, I realize that I am capable of so much more than sketches and scribbles. My art has taken on many more forms, including video, compositions, 3d art, design, and interactivity. With all these mediums at my disposal, I can turn my emotions and responses to current issues, whether that be personal, or societal, into something tangible.Being alive and growing up in the 21st century is a blessing because technology is evolving rapidly, and society evolves with that technology. Internet culture is changing day by day, and in recent years it has become a lot more obscure; things that make sense now may not have made sense 10 years ago. As a young artist, I feel like the pieces I make and what I have to say depend heavily on what is relevant at a current point in time.Likewise, I feel like the most efficient way to communicate what I want viewers to take away from a piece, is to create them in a way in which they are most likely to be genuinely intrigued. Knowing trending Gen-z culture, that understanding, can also mean presenting topics in a way that appear surreal or obscure. I enjoy making pieces that lack a straightforward meaning; this includes things like incorporating shock and/or spontaneous, sometimes surreal elements. I find that these things tend to spark a conversation in people, whether it be deep insight or just a laugh. Another integral part of internet culture is that media spreads fast; some would call this a meme. Sometimes this is the most effective way to get information across to a wide variety of people in a relatively short time; that can't be achieved if the media being consumed requires too much intellectual analysis at its surface. I continuously strive to reach this genre with my pieces, and that doesn't require the piece to always make full sense. With what I’ve learned and been exposed through thus far in my time in university, I want to take these building blocks and expand on them, particularly in interactivity and the 3D realm, which I’ve only recently dipped my toes into but have learned to love. As I continue to grow as an artist, I want my work to continue to reflect and parallel the rapidly-changing trends of the internet and society— in terms of both medium and content.