1981_11 The Daily Collegian November 1981

              Pege4/November10, 1961-DalIy Collegian
Saroyan did more than just write
Unknown to even many of his closest
friends and associates, the late William
Saroyan was.the consummate artist in
more ways than one.
As Saroyan used to tell his friend Dr.
Dickran Kouymjian, 'Wait until I go,
and they find this. * For Saroyan thought
of himself i as someone who could do
anything in the arts, given enough
time to develop a style he was satis¬
fied with.
When Saroyan died last May, he left
behind much more than just his literary
legacy to the world. Saroyan also left
behind hundreds of paintings and draw¬
ings that are only now being shown to
the public. Not until his death was his
artwork discovered in his homes in
Fresno and Paris.
'Saroyan was very sure of his art and
of himself as an artist," said Kouymjian,
director of Armenian Studies at CSUF.
"What's actually amazing is the sure-
As part of the two-week "Saroyan
Festival" at CSUF, 38 paintings by
Saroyan are currently on display at the
Phebe Conley Art Gallery at the univer¬
sity The exhibit will run until Nov. 15.
According to Kouymjian, much of
Saroyan s artwork dates back to the
1950s and some of it even before
then. (Tht exhibit s paintings date
back to 1963.] When Kouymjian asked
one of Saroyan's relatives if he had
known about Saroyan's artwork, the
relative replied yes, that Saroyan used
to draw his squiggles and doodles since
1963.
Needless to say, that relative was
very surprised to find out that Saroyan
had been painting and drawing for a lot
longer than that
Kouymjian said that Saroyan's paint¬
ings and drawings number well over
1,000. At his Paris residence alone,
Kouymjian catalogued 783 individual
pieces of artistic work.
Upon seeing Saroyan's artwork, the
viewer is at first struck by his ab¬
stract approach to his work. On closer
observation, the viewer takes notice of
even more. On each of his paintings,
Saroyan's huge signature in the bottom
left-hand corner is usually followed by
Saroyan 'would try
to do something
totally untypical
of his work'
a title, which is followed by a date, which
is followed by the place. Some paintings
even include the time they were drawn.
"It seems as though it's like a fourth
dimension where not only the place but
the time and events in life have
meaning," said Dr Arra S. Avakian,
professor emeritus of Armenian Stud¬
ies at CSUF.
Kouymjian said that if one painting,
for instance, had the date "Saturday,
May 6, 1972, 10 p.m." on it, that by
10:30 p.m., Saroyan would have prob¬
ably painted six or seven more. In an
hour's time, he would usually create
about 18 to 20 paintings. •
is not to say that Saroy-
_. painted every day or even every
week. He would have maybe a week or
two of furious artistic activity, and
'then a year would go by and he
wouldn't touch the stuff,' Kouymjian
Saroyan was probably influenced by
such artists as Juan Miro, Tobey, and
Corky, a fellow Armenian artist he met
m New York City and who committed
suicide in 1948. Saroyan, who never had
an art lesson just as he had never had a
writing lesson, 'would go to the galler¬
ies to see what others were doing,'
Kouymjian said.
Even without a lesson, Kouymjian
said, Saroyan 'knows how to fill in a
space. He has a sense of design, and he
has an oriental-rug approach to color."
"I find them refreshing," Avakian
said. 'They're more than just crude
forms and structures. The technique is
essentially free-flowing patterns, a con¬
tinuous flow idea."
Kouymjian said that while the gallery
selected the best representatives of
Saroyan's artwork, that even those not
selected convey Saroyan' s very aesthetic
style.
Much of Saroyan's paintings ' and
drawings are of a similar style—colorful
lines and small blobs of color flowing
freely on a piece of paper Once in a
while, however, Saroyan "would try to
do something totally untypical of his
work,' Kouymjian said.
For instance, from time to time,
Saroyan would create a work of art by
painting a design on a page of a news¬
paper or a telephone book 'to awaken
the viewer to the aesthetic quality of
something like a newspaper," Kouym-
Although it was very rare for Saroyan
to do so, he did create three to four
paintings   which   had   a   constructional
aspect to them such as his painting
entitled 'Fatty's Right Start and Brave
End ' which resembles vaguely a type of
Other artwork by Saroyan alludes to
his Armenian heritage, such as his
painting entitled 'Armenian Dance,* an
abstract, earth-colored creation.
With the exception of paints, Saroyan
never bought any type oT-art supplies.
Instead, he would hoard all different
kinds of paper, anything from news¬
paper pages to telephone book pages to
butcher-meat paper to wrapping paper.
After the Saroyan exhibit ends next
Sunday, the 38 paintings will be re¬
turned to his house in Fresno. Kouym¬
jian said it was Saroyan's wish that
all his non-literary work such as his
paintings, drawings, letters, and various
collections be given to the Armenian
National Museum, which will be built
at CSUF.
Members of the artistic community
have viewed Saroyan's artwork, and the
reactions have been quite varied.
"Some have recognized it for the
greatness in it," Kouymjian said, "and
some had to warm up to it. When they
saw it under the lights, they saw that
he had reached a style and kept it.*
Saroyan believed that creating art
would ensure man's immortality, which
is the reason he explored more than
one area of artistic expression.
"He was a man of more dimensions
than just words on paper,' Avakian said.
"Saroyan considered his painting,
like his writing, an artistic, creative
act," Kouymjian said. "It was the pro¬
duct of an artistic act that was the only
thing that would save man from dying.
Man's salvation would come through
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IN  THE  HEART OF THE  CAMPUS
KRCD facing rapids on Dinky water project
Voters approved the financing of the
Dinkey Creek Hydroelectric Project in
the local municipal election last week but
the Kings River Conservation District
faces plenty of rapids before any con¬
struction can begin.
Two local organizations are preparing
to fight the 'destruction of the free
flowing stream" at hearings before the
State Water Resources Control Boar
Nov.l6and17.
Sierra Association for Environm
nod the Community to Save the K
River, like the conservation district,
interested in the best use of the K
River and its tributaries.
The problem is they have dlffe
ideas of what the best use is.
Dinkey Creek is one of many a
along the Kings River watershed vie
many years back" as potential hy
electric project sites, according to
district manager Jeff Taylor. Others
were Tehipiti, Cedar Crave; Pine Flat,
and Roger's Crossing.
Only Pine Flat has been dammed and
the first two are now within the National
Park System.
Discussion to build a hydroelectric
plant on Dinkey Creek started in 1974,
according to KRCD assistant manager
Larry Howard.
Preliminary     environment     impact
studies were conducted the following
two years. The district applied in 1978
for a license from the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, one of two
agencies required to issue a license for
the project.
That application Is still pending,
Howard said.
The district states several reasons for
Students 2-1 against Dinky project
The choice is between a natural free
flowing stream ana a reservoir.
A campus survey of 32 CSUF
students suggests a preference of two
to one for a free flowing stream for
recreation purposes.
However, many students also
showed ignorance of either Dinkey
Creek or the prospect of a hydro¬
electric power plant there. Thus many
did not know whether the plant should
be built. «
Students were interviewed in the
College Union, the cafeteria, the Old
Science Building, the Speech-Arts
Building, the McKee-Fisk Building
and the Henry Madden Library.
'I don't know enough about the
project,* was one response echoed by
many others when asked if they
favored, building a hydroelectric
plant on the mountain stream be¬
tween Pine Flat and Shaver Lakes.
The Kings River Conservation
District, which is proposing the pro¬
ject, excludes all incorporated cities
from its electorate. The district does
not send information to residents of
Fresno or Clovis, nor do residents of
those or other cities vote on district
Twenty of those students asked did
prefer a stream as opposed to a
reservoir for recreation. Six others
preferred a reservoir and- six were
undecided or had no preference.
The district's project would mean
creation of a- reservoir that would
flood Camp Fresno, the Girts Scouts'
Camp El-O-Win and the YWCA's
Camp Mar-Y-Mac.
The land is federal forest land
under the supervision of the U.S.
Forest Service.
'We offered to relocate the
camps,* district assistant manager
Larry Howard said. The Forest
Service told the district that re¬
location was not necessary, because
forest use policy is moving away from
exclusive recreational use.
Sierra Association for Environ¬
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by that attitude in the case of Camp
Fresno. The camp is not an exclusive
campground just for Fresno re¬
sidents, he said. He claims the Forest
Service is trying to 'kick out' all
users for the sake of the district.
'This project is not for the overall
public good," he said.
— agricultural irrigation reserves
energy," Howard said. The project
would be one way to free the utilities
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said.
Irrigation needs are currently greater
than supplies, Howard said. The current
Kings River 1.6 million acre feet must be
tn'pled, he added.
Although he admitted that Dinkey
Creek is a small addition, he said tt
would help to meet both the Irrigation
and the ground recharge needs.
Howard said the dam would also fx>lp
prevent flooding by helping to control
the volume in Pine Flat Reservoir.
District literature states that 362
million kilowatt hours generated from
the project will be sold to Southern
California Edison, which in turn is con¬
tracting with Pacific Cas and Electric
DINKEYcontinuedonpage6
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