By Peggy Sturdivant

The night after I spent time with Dionne Haroutunian in her artist studio on Market Street I dreamed that I was at a crossroads in my life and chose another path than the one I did in 1989. I cannot be the first person who has experienced this Haroutunian effect. Since she is about to embark on a six-month motorcycle trip through Eastern Europe and Turkey in the spirit of art, adventure and world peace entire nations may be left reeling.

Haroutunian grew up in Geneva, Switzerland. Her first language is French, which may be why some of her phrasings sound romantic rather than realistic. She speaks of dropping into Turkey, and then dropping into Iran, as though she can parachute with simply words. Then again it may not be the translation, it could just be her self-confidence and optimism.

International artist, teacher and printmaker Haroutunian, everyone calls her Dionne, is co-owner of BallardWorks on Market. She is about to travel through extremely volatile Eastern European countries on a motorcycle without a set plan. She is funding her trip through selling subscriptions to the artwork she plans to produce during and after the adventure. In addition she and her companion Mike are counting on the homes, couches and barns of strangers for sleeping. “What’s the worst that could happen?” she’s fond of asking.

That phrase is spoken lightly but as an Armenian there’s real truth at its center. Armenians were subject to genocide between 1915 and 1923 in Turkey. It is still denied, illegal to speak of in Turkey, so volatile that countries, including the U.S., avoid acknowledging it. Haroutunian’s father survived because he was sent as a five year-old orphan to Switzerland, raised to be returned to a country that no longer existed when he was old enough to be sent back. The worst has already happened for someone whose people were subject to genocide.

“World peace one friendship at a time,” is Dionne’s theme for her upcoming trip. Where would that be most personally challenging? Turkey. But Dionne has accepted her brother’s challenge to go there. “Fear and prejudice seems to be growing now,” she said. “The only power I have right now is through building human connections and then sharing my experiences.” As a motorcyclist she loves the lack of barriers it allows, for observing and interacting. After teaching and creating art in China and Nigeria she’s a longtime citizen and artist of the world, and far more widely traveled in the U.S. than most (and on motorcycle).

She will carry some of her artwork with her and has been announcing her subscription plan locally and on IndieGoGo. Her plan starts with $30 postcard updates through the ultimate reward at $1200, a 22’x30’ unique monoprint combining some of her many techniques, woodblock, etching, silkscreen, collage, and more. In her studio she showed me 24 woodblocks that she then fit together and printed seamlessly onto a full-size sheet with a backdrop mapping the countries where she will be traveling. The image is of a tree Dionne began sketching and then photographing outside her mother’s window before her death earlier this year.

An artist since childhood and a traveler at heart, Dionne has been considering the big trip since 2010 and will leave May 9th, to be joined by her partner Mike, an Emergency Room doctor, photographer, and fellow motorcyclist. She traveled similarly in her 20’s so is confident she can do it again. As for language barriers, managing the heat, the borders, food and shelter, one-on-one connections: “I’ll know a lot more next November.” She shrugged as though to say again, what’s the worst that could happen.

“What is the worst thing that has happened to you?” I asked, immediately aware it was not a question one should ask. This is a woman whose father was exiled in order to survive, a woman whose mother died just a month ago.

Dionne’s face was still for the first time. “No one has ever asked me that,” Dionne said. I looked into her gold-specked brown eyes. What is it for me about the brown eyes of Armenians that makes them so revealing? Looking into Dionne’s eyes I felt a deep pang for my college friend Lisa Mougalian, outed as the Barry Manilow listener freshman year. Lisa was the first friend that I lost to cancer. She died before her younger son graduated from high school. Perhaps it wasn’t coincidence that her only travel abroad was a semester in Geneva, Switzerland where Dionne’s father was sent and where he married a blond and blue-eyed Swiss German named Heidy.

Dionne seemed to look at her past before replying. “My cousin died at age 20,” she said. “We were more like brother and sister. But I had to go away after that happened. I came to America.” She looked around at her studio, her work. “And now I’m so privileged. I love my business. I love Seattle. It’s heaven on earth, like a silver lining.”

In my dream I was in my late 20’s again, at the crossroads of a choice that would lead me to Seattle or not, married or not, the person I would become without a defining loss, or with it. Sitting next to Dionne Haroutunian, we agreed that it’s surviving loss that creates the silver lining, and has molded us into who we are today. She will be the fearless one on the motorcycle.

http://4artandadventure.com/
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/world-peace-one-friendship-at-a-time…