9-11 is my largest and most important work. I Thought about painting 9-11, but never felt as strongly about it until visiting the memorial. I saw the remaining of the towers, the fire truck. I heard the audio of people who left messages to their loved ones for the last time… I knew I was ready to paint 9-11. I painted 2977 candles – 1 candle for each victim. There is the Fire truck which is in the museum. There is the famous wall street the day of the attack, and the ruins of the buildings. Firefighters helping each other, they are devastated but not broken, they raise the American Flag to show the world – you destroyed our towers but you can not destroy our soul. This painting is about the attack but also recovery, so we see airplanes crashed, then in the middle of the painting we see the aftermath, the devastation but also a hope for tomorrow… Left of the painting is the Memorial and the rebirth, remembrance and respect to the victims of 9-11 and the Great city of NY.
Mher Khachatryan
The Smoke Artist
When I was a child, I dreamed of other worlds—a place where challenges and doubts were met with the magic of endless possibilities. My dreams were filled with whispers of another dimension, a realm where every star held a secret and the smoke of my imagination became a bridge to that unseen place.
I began to paint smoke because, to me, it wasn’t just smoke. It felt like energy transforming into matter—a gentle reminder that our world is more than what meets the eye. With every brushstroke, I wondered: Is it just smoke, or is it a kind of energy, a portal to another dimension? I often felt that within the swirling patterns of smoke, we might catch a glimpse of another world—a place where the past and future merge in a soft, hazy glow.
This simple act of painting became a way to explore my own dreams. Each painting is a journey, an invitation to look beyond the everyday and see the mystery that lives within the smoke. It’s a reminder that even in our moments of doubt, there’s a hidden energy, a spark that connects us to something larger—a beautiful, ever-changing universe waiting to be discovered.
-The Smoke Artist _