Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Delaware County, PA (Delco"") and the surrounding Philadelphia Metro Region.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
From Gardens to Galleries: How Monique Sarkeesian's Art Transforms Spaces and Lives
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From Gardens to Galleries: How Monique Sarkeesian's Art Transforms Spaces and Lives
What happens when creative expression meets spiritual purpose? This episode of The Good Neighbor Podcast takes a refreshing artistic turn as we welcome Monique Sarkessian, a professional artist whose vibrant works have been transforming spaces across Delaware County and the Philadelphia region for over five decades.
Unlike our typical home service or retail business guests, Monique represents a different kind of neighborhood treasure – as one who creates beauty that feeds the soul. Her expressive style, often compared to Van Gogh and Monet, captures the splendor of local gardens and natural scenes with a distinctive use of color that immediately draws viewers in. But what truly separates Monique's work is something you can't quite put your finger on – a quality that brings unexpected peace and healing to the spaces where her art lives.
From her studio in Malvern, PA, Monique works across an impressive range of mediums that span art history itself. Traditional oil paintings share space with sculptural ceramics, encaustic wax pieces (an ancient technique dating back to Greece and Rome) and contemporary alcohol inks. Each creation reflects her belief that art should "breathe life into rooms" – a philosophy that resonates deeply with her collectors, who often describe profound emotional responses to her work. Listen as Good Neighbor Podcast Host Bob Blaisse interviews Monique Sarkessian, whose artistry is based on her love for God and her desire to bring God's goodness into people's homes, revealing Monique's spiritual foundation that infuses each piece with its distinctive atmosphere. Listening to this episode will have you re-discovering the transformative power of original art and why Monique's creations have found their way into homes and businesses throughout the Philadelphia region.
Whether you're an art enthusiast or simply curious about adding beauty to your surroundings, the conversation in this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast might just change how you think about the spaces where you live and work, thanks to artist Monique Sarkessian.
Monique Sarkessian
www.MoniqueSarkesianArt.com
Instagram.com/moniquesarkessianart
facebook.com/moniquesarkessianfineartstudio
https://www.pinterest.com/moniquesarkessianart/
--- About The Show--- Good Neighbor Podcast is a spotlight on local businesses in and around Delaware County, PA (“Delco” ) and Beyond... The executive producer and host, Bob Blaisse, is a community sponsorship advocate, business branding specialist, and publisher of several hometown magazines, including: Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Edgmont Friends & Neighbors, mailed monthly to more than 12,000 homes in Western Delaware County, PA, and also available for reading online.
Welcome to Good Neighbor Podcast
Speaker 1Hello, delco. This is Michael Barkan, welcoming you to the Good Neighbor podcast, where fans of local businesses and their neighbors come together. It's my pleasure once again to introduce my friend and neighbor, our host Bob Lacey.
Speaker 2Hello Michael and hello Delco, as we like to say, delaware County, pennsylvania is where we're coming from today for the Good Neighbor podcast, delaware County, Pennsylvania, in the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, just north of the state of Delaware, just west of the state of New Jersey and just below the city of Philadelphia. Delaware County, lovingly referred to as Delco short, and it's we say Delco and beyond, because at the Good Neighbor podcast what we're trying to do with every episode is bring to you, the listeners, a new Good Neighbor business in our community, a business that's in Delaware County, pennsylvania, or just on the fringes, but certainly serving Delco and beyond. And we try to have different businesses all the time. You all are nominating them. So it's wonderful the amount of listenership that we have from this podcast and wonderful how even some of our guests will nominate other Good Neighbor businesses. So keep that in mind.
Introducing Artist Monique Sarkeesian
Speaker 2If you're interested in looking at the Good Neighbor podcast website, it's GNP for Good Neighbor podcast, gmpdelcocom, and today our guest. It is another different episode, like we had in one of the most recent episodes Today, another one quite different. It's not a contractor, it's not a retail store. Well, you could say that possibly we have an artist today that's going to be talking about the art that she brings to our lives really a chance to see beauty in painted form and we'll talk about whether or not there are other art forms that Monique Sarkeesian is bringing to us today. So it's with pleasure that I do introduce and bring to the stage our guest today for the Good Neighbor Podcast. Hello, monique, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Speaker 3Thank you, I'm so grateful to be here.
Art Styles and Professional Gallery
Speaker 2It'll be a lot of fun because we have not talked to an artist in this way before. And, monique, it's not like you're just starting out. You're kind of on the fringe there. The mainline Philadelphia it's an upper class kind of an area for business and really they know artists and if you're kind of out that way here in the Philadelphia suburban area and you've been an artist since, I think, age 16. We won't say how old you are now, but a lot of years, I think. Monique, just I'm so grateful that you took the time as a successful professional artist to come and talk to us here on the Good Neighbor podcast. It's important that we let the listeners know from the beginning what category of art and what the art form is, and then also maybe a little bit of what the subject matter of your art is. Tell us a little bit about your art career, if you would.
Speaker 3Sure Well, people liken my style to common terms that people know, such as impressionism or expressionism, because I use a lot of bright colors. I love gardens. I'll paint in gardens like Chanticleer, which is well-known in the area, or Longwood, or places like that. But my form that I like to use is very expressive.
Speaker 2So, as artists that are famous worldwide, who would you say? Somebody would say you've got a little bit of this and that appearance, and I think I'm thinking of one that I know we have paintings in our house that my wife loves a French artist, monet, right. Would it be similar to that kind of art?
Speaker 3True, a lot of people liken me to Vincent van Gogh, for you know, because of the expressiveness and the color. And yeah, you're right on target.
Speaker 2For you know because of the expressiveness and the color and, yeah, you're right on target. So, Monique, you are an artist and it isn't just. You know, painting for love of painting, it certainly is love, and you turn your hobby into your career and yet you're successful. So how do we judge success by an artist? I think it's. You know, are people buying your paintings? And you know, I think that I'm hearing a lot about how people would buy your paintings really, because of how beautiful they are. They're using them for decor right In homes, businesses.
Speaker 2I'm imagining that they come into your gallery. Tell us a little bit about your gallery. Where is it and how does it work when people are shopping for art? I really have not shopped for art, but it might be interesting to know what's it like when people are shopping for art. I really have not shopped for art, but it might be interesting to know what's it like when people come in to your gallery. Do they come by appointment? Do they come because they see it open? And then are they making comments about your art? And is that hard to hear? Because they might not be loving that picture but liking this one?
Speaker 3It's really a joy to serve people and to see what transformation my work brings into people's lives. So we just go from there. I prefer to have appointments because at the moment my studio is located in my home in Malvern and so just because of that, dynamic appointments are welcome. But I'm flexible on timing since I do work out of my house at this point. So you know, with the COVID shifts everybody was working from home, so I just kind of did that then and just kept doing it, and so people contact me to make an appointment. Then they come in and they can see many things that I have available at this time and we discuss their needs and I see how they respond to different things and what they're really looking for to make their their life more beautiful so when they come, they're looking at the art that you already have on display and and I think what I'm hearing is that for the most part, it's oil paint, oil painted on canvas, type paintings, correct?
Speaker 3Well, I use a lot of different mediums, but I do do a lot of oil paint on canvas or wood.
Speaker 2Tell us, what else Are you into, sculpture even.
Diverse Art Mediums and Forms
Speaker 3I used to weld until that got to be too heavy. You had to carry around. You know, I was carrying around these heavy metal sculptures that were pieced together with salvaged auto parts and things like that, and so the bigger they got, the heavier they got. And then I also love ceramics like Raku ceramics in sculptural form, not in the functional form, so you'll see those at my studio as well. And then um, and then, as far as paintings go, I've worked in encaustic wax, which is an ancient technique using hot wax and pigment and resin, and, um, alcohol inks, which are quite new. So that's like really a huge timeline of art materials that go back to ancient Greece and Rome and to, you know, right now, alcohol inks, which look like watercolor, with the vibrancy, but they're not as fussy, and you get a lot of fun chemical reactions, because I like the process.
Art's Impact and Spiritual Connection
Speaker 2That's a lot of different mediums of art. So we've proven out that we're really talking to an artist in many forms, and we are talking to an artist today on the Good Neighbor podcast we have artist Monique Sarkeesian, and she is the name behind the brand Monique Sarkeesian Fine Art Gallery and Studio gallery and studio, and if you would like to see Monique's art, the varied forms of art, you can see them in her online studio, really by going to moniquesarquesianartcom. And let me spell Monique's last name, so you know for sure, but first name, monique M-O-N-I-Q-E. Sarquesian, is spelled S-A-R-K-E-S-S-I-A-N, s-a-r-k-e-s-s-i-a-n. Artcom. Monique's Sarkeesian artcom will take you to Monique's website, her gallery online, that you'll be able to see her paintings and their different forms of art that she has created and learn about Monique, and this is how we get to know the artist.
Speaker 2And if you're in Delaware County or beyond, if you'd like to have an original piece of art, uh, monique, you, you'll. You'll have a way on your website that they can contact you. There's a form or something that they can if they want to set up a time to try to meet you. Come out and look at the art. Well, it's marvelous, and I guess, monique, can I ask you, though how many years you have been a professional artist.
Speaker 3I'm trying to. Well, I've been creating since I was old enough to make anything, I think.
Speaker 2But I've been painting for 50 years, 50 years 50 years creating as an artist, and successfully so, because, with the gallery that you have and being where you are in Malvern, Pennsylvania, but being there right on the fringe of the Philadelphia mainline, there are really some well-to-do folks that know art and want to have an original artist art piece, and Monique is one of them selling art for now a number of years professionally and supporting her family that way. Monique, if I could, let me ask you as an artist, we know why you paint and we know the beauty that you want to bring and capture, but what? What's your feelings? What do you hear from the people who see your art, Love it let's start with that and and buy it and want to hang it in their house. Teach us a little bit about. If we're not putting art near us in our atmosphere, why should we? What does it really do for us in our being?
Speaker 3Well, I believe that it breathes life into your room. It depends on the art, honestly, and my work is really based on my love for God and my desire to bring His goodness and His love for His children into my work, into people's homes, and so what you have when you buy my artwork not all artwork. Artwork is like this you have that coming in and it does change the atmosphere. It does bring peace, it does bring joy and that's what people tell me. Whether they recognize that or not, they're just like oh, I was going through a really hard time and your work when I look at your work, it brought me to a place of calm and I can't really understand it or of healing, and when I realized that people were saying that, I was really amazed because I don't, I can't do that. That's what God does to me.
Speaker 2Certainly, art is to be seen and if you'd like to be able to see Monique's artwork, you can see it in various forms and at various sites. So you can check out Monique's website it's MoniqueSarkesianArtcom, and you can search Monique's name on the internet. It's unusual enough I'll spell the last name here it's S-A-R-K-E-S-S-I-A-N. Monique Sarkeesian, and you can check out her LinkedIn site or Facebook site, twitter, instagram, to be able to see the many, many different forms of art that Monique has brought to life and would like to bring to your life as a professional artist that does sell her artwork and I highly recommend it because it feeds the soul.
Closing Thoughts and Contact Information
Speaker 2And, monique, I want to thank you for giving over the glory of your talent to God and the hope that you know God's using you to bring art to others. You're certainly a good neighbor business and certainly a good person and a wonderful artist. It's just so wonderful to have you as a guest here today on the Good Neighbor podcast. Thanks for being our guest and thank you for your talent, bringing your talent to bear here on our program. Thank you.
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast hosted by Bob Lacey. This is Michael Barkan inviting everyone to get on the Good Neighbor team. Nominate your favorite local business to be featured on an upcoming episode by going to GNPDELCOcom or by calling Bob at 610-557-3745.