Sarkis Simonian

Studio #10

Sarkis Simonian was born in New York City and has lived in the Woodstock-Saugerties-Kingston area since 1979 and now lives in the village of Saugerties, NY.
He briefly attended the City College of NY.  He also served three years in the U S Army. Originally a filmmaker and part of the underground film scene in NYC where he graduated film school in 1969.  He has eight films to his credit that were shown in various venues in the city plus a twenty hour family history on video as well a series called, “Road Raps.”

Simonian switched to painting in 1977 and is primarily self-taught. He has exhibited in group shows at the Woodstock Guild, Woodstock Artists Association, Petrucci Gallery, Primrose Gallery, Muroff-Kotler Gallery at Ulster Community College, and has previously participated in the Saugerties Studio Tour. His paintings have also been seen in the Woodstock Artist Space, where he also had his first solo show, followed by one man shows at the Woodstock Artists Association, Coffee Gallery and the BSP Gallery.  His films have been reviewed in the New York Herald, and his paintings in Town and Country, the Kingston Freeman, and the Woodstock Times. He has also shown with “The Poets Gallery,” which he founded in 1991.

Simonian, who considers himself primarily a painter, has published and edited the Poets Gallery anthologies, and has had a chap book published by “Look Quick,” based in Pueblo, Colorado. His poems have also appeared in Hunger magazine. His writing is mostly autobiographical, written in a hybrid style of poetry/narrative that includes, “Motel Modern,”  “Motel Days & After,” “Moving On,” “Being With The Moon,” “The Last Book,” Volumes I, II, III & IV,” “Poems, Stories, Recollections,” “ Miscellaneous Writings,” “Living in a Chinese Landscape,” and “A Painter’s Journey,”  volumes I & II.  He has also written two works of fiction,  a novel “Under a Pink Moon,” and a short story sequel to Pink Moon, “On the Dark Side of the Moon,” as well as a book of letters to his two youngest grandchildren, “Letters to Luciano and Sebastian”.

Simonian is married to the poet JoAnne Valentine. They have between them two sons, and six grandchildren.