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  • Passion For Classics

    Glendale News Press
    Nov 2 2009
    CA

    Passion for classics

    Glendale artist Ara Dona is back after a four-year art apprenticeship
    in Florence, Italy. One of his paintings is hanging behind him. (Roger
    Wilson/News-Press)

    Artist says if you connect with a subject, it will show in the
    painting.

    By Max Zimbert Published: Last Updated Sunday, November 1, 2009 10:12
    PM PST

    Glendale High School graduate Ara Dona must now find a way to make a
    living after finishing a prestigious four-year program at the Florence
    Academy of Arts in Italy.

    Dona's work is dark, concentrated and emotional. The classical style
    originated in Florence and gives its practitioners the skills to
    capture emotion and convey meaning in ways that photographs cannot.

    "Classical painting, it requires interpretation," Dona said. "The
    thing that's very important and attractive about classical art is
    the discipline it gives you to paint exactly what you see, [but]
    every artist when they paint something from life, they interpret it
    in their own way."

    He is scheduled to have his works shown at the Lake Avenue Church in
    Pasadena in mid-November.

    Technique requires an understanding of anatomy, chemistry and sometimes
    construction. A lot of classical art originates with models posing
    in unnatural positions that sometimes require their limbs to be tied
    up. Chemistry is necessary to avoid cracking paints as well as knowing
    how to blend paints together.

    "It's not a matter of what you paint, it's how you paint it," he said.

    "You can paint something, but if you don't paint it the way it is
    required to paint, there's no point."

    Many people have been inspired by Dona's work and have helped him
    along the way. One individual was so inspired, he invited Dona
    to use a studio all summer, and when Dona said he couldn't manage
    transportation, he lent him a car, said Jo Butcher, a teacher at
    Glendale High School who described Dona as her third child.

    "They believed in this young man's talent and his humility," she said.

    "I hope that he is able to maintain that type of aura that he has
    that people believing in him and want to see the best of success."

    Butcher said she virtually gave up her family life for two years to
    nurture Dona in high school.

    "The greatest gift for a teacher is to see someone learn," she said.

    "He had such a desire, you couldn't turn your back on him. The
    sacrifice in your own life, it was worth it to give to somebody. I
    won't be getting anything possibly in return, but society will."

    Dona was born in Armenia and moved to Glendale in the early '90s. He
    earned $65,000 worth of scholarships for his education and has had a
    few celebrity clients like Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise and Kent Perkins,
    husband of "Laugh-In" regular Ruth Buzzi. He also won an art contest
    where the prize was wall space in Rep. Adam Schiff's Washington,
    D.C., office.

    His scholarships began to trail off into his final year, but his
    accountant sponsored his studies for $26,000.

    "He has so much talent, and I wanted to encourage that," Andy
    Allcroft said.

    Dona and girlfriend Julia Stjernstrom said they hope to find a studio
    soon and begin work and two complementary 14-foot pieces depicting
    the jailing and angelic intervention of St. Paul. The work will take
    about six months, and the artists said they hope to do portraits for
    commission in between.

    The two met in school at Florence and quickly became friends,
    Stjernstrom said.

    "He was well-known there by everybody," she said. "One of the first
    things he said was, 'I shouldn't be afraid of paint, the paint should
    be afraid of you.'"
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