Who am I
I grew up in New Jersey and New York City, landing in the Bay Area 21 years ago.
I started at Boston University, transferred to Fairleigh Dickinson University where my parents both taught, studied abroad in England, transferred and graduated from Drew University in NJ with degree in English minoring in art and acting. After college, I attended The School of Visual Arts for painting, illustration and jewelry, I'm also a working actor, making theater and films. (To see more of that work, check out: emilykeyishian.com) I also created a solo show based on my art and heritage called "Broken Borders" which you can see a version of here: https://vimeo.com/1166106389
Currently I've been doing a lot of exploring of family history, the history of the Armenian people and the diaspora. I'm currently studying one of my native languages, Western Armenian (Բարե՛ւ). Collecting the stories: the beauty and the pain, the loss and death, and the survival and success. I'm so lucky to be a part of a group of Armenians and Turkish people who are willing to come together to heal and share stories. Being Jewish from Galicia/the Ukraine as well adds it's extra flavor of guilt, shame and pain, which is also part of the exploration. Also the fear of being found.
I struggle with what being "American" means. We were infused with so much shame, from the food we ate, the rituals, the "where are you from?" obvious you don't belong here vibe. But to keep forcing ourselves to "fit in" out of fear, fear of being found, of being caught, killed. But in trying to cover ourselves, we lost ourselves. We are already stateless, Armenia is a country, but it is not where my family is from. We are from Turkey, but we can't go back. There is no way to explain: we have no home, no root to return to and that affects us all to the core. I have always struggled with feeling rootless. I thought it was just from my experience growing up in a household dominated by a narcissist force. And it sure was that, but the unspoken rootlessness of not having a land. New York City was as close as we came to "our land" and between Queens and Brooklyn, you found that there were more people like you, But it's not a home. California is even less of a home, I feel the wounds of Native American upheaval. Majestic beauty, but feels taken for granted, replanted.
About the work
Abstract art allows me to find a path in the world where I struggle to find where I fit, there is no set path that I have found for myself. These paintings allow me to express that uncertainty of belonging, of the body not being in the right place on earth, the journey my family took to get here, leaving a country they loved because they were forced out and always feeling like this land was a temporary stop before they went back, which they never could return.
I build abstract pattern paintings in layered oil, exploring where the body belongs on the earth and what it means to carry a homeland inside you when that land is no longer yours. Drawing on the memory of textiles, the cellular structures of nature, and the visual language of diaspora I create dense, restless fields of form and color that hold both grief and beauty at once.
My invented vocabulary of nested ovals, rounded rectangles, and interlocking organic shapes reads like a kind of cellular language, almost biological or microscopic, as if painting the texture of living systems. Every inch of the canvas is active, an underlying rhythm governs how the forms cluster and breathe. The color is confident and joyful, even when the subject is loss.
These paintings have real presence in a room. They reward the kind of looking that reveals more over time — and what you find in them is yours.
Making art whether it be on stage, on the canvas, or in metal. It's all connected. The more I work, the more questions beget questions, why make anything at all. But my history is calling and it is important to share, it's important to unfold the hidden notes I left all over, I thought I hid them well, but here I am finding them again.
About the influence of music on my work
The name devildoll comes from the band X, a punk band from L.A., I found that punk filled many holes in me for many years. So much humor and pain in the punk and hardcore movement, and it fed my soul for a long time. Music is healing and art is expression. It comes from every part of me. Punk was a family I was trying to join, I thought it would fill that hole in me, rootless hole. It did not fill that hole, it really didn't want me either. Nowadays music is still a major source of creativity and inspiration. It is hard to specify the music type I listen to now, but I am always searching for new music and going down rabbit holes of different types. (Thanks Pandora!) A few of my current faves are Tame Impala, Ben Bömer, Tycho, Amon Tobin, Aquasky, alt-J, Boards of Canada, Ulrich Schnauss, Caribou, Aan, Chet Faker, Deadmau5, Bonobo, Yppah. And of course, Hip Hop, especially from the early days. I use a lot of lyrics and song titles as titles to paintings and you may recognize some Tom Waits, Cat Power and Beck. The underlying mood and poetry of these musicians and writers inspire me and sometimes capture the moment of expression better than I ever could.
I'm also a married mother of 2 boys, which has unbalanced and balanced me over and over. Being an artist, wife and a mother poses so many challenges that I end up feeling so grateful for: they help to constantly reshape me. The boys are older now, 16 and 18, I have a better balance and perspective. It's been an intense struggle, but growth is not optional if you want to live a full life.
email: [email protected] Instagram @thedevildoll TikTok: @thedevildolli Acting website www.emilykeyishian.com
Interested in hearing more? Interview here with William Sky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi-2s49gIp4&feature=youtu.be
Press https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/bcnarts-piedmont-artist-actor-emily-keyishian-21232063.php
I grew up in New Jersey and New York City, landing in the Bay Area 21 years ago.
I started at Boston University, transferred to Fairleigh Dickinson University where my parents both taught, studied abroad in England, transferred and graduated from Drew University in NJ with degree in English minoring in art and acting. After college, I attended The School of Visual Arts for painting, illustration and jewelry, I'm also a working actor, making theater and films. (To see more of that work, check out: emilykeyishian.com) I also created a solo show based on my art and heritage called "Broken Borders" which you can see a version of here: https://vimeo.com/1166106389
Currently I've been doing a lot of exploring of family history, the history of the Armenian people and the diaspora. I'm currently studying one of my native languages, Western Armenian (Բարե՛ւ). Collecting the stories: the beauty and the pain, the loss and death, and the survival and success. I'm so lucky to be a part of a group of Armenians and Turkish people who are willing to come together to heal and share stories. Being Jewish from Galicia/the Ukraine as well adds it's extra flavor of guilt, shame and pain, which is also part of the exploration. Also the fear of being found.
I struggle with what being "American" means. We were infused with so much shame, from the food we ate, the rituals, the "where are you from?" obvious you don't belong here vibe. But to keep forcing ourselves to "fit in" out of fear, fear of being found, of being caught, killed. But in trying to cover ourselves, we lost ourselves. We are already stateless, Armenia is a country, but it is not where my family is from. We are from Turkey, but we can't go back. There is no way to explain: we have no home, no root to return to and that affects us all to the core. I have always struggled with feeling rootless. I thought it was just from my experience growing up in a household dominated by a narcissist force. And it sure was that, but the unspoken rootlessness of not having a land. New York City was as close as we came to "our land" and between Queens and Brooklyn, you found that there were more people like you, But it's not a home. California is even less of a home, I feel the wounds of Native American upheaval. Majestic beauty, but feels taken for granted, replanted.
About the work
Abstract art allows me to find a path in the world where I struggle to find where I fit, there is no set path that I have found for myself. These paintings allow me to express that uncertainty of belonging, of the body not being in the right place on earth, the journey my family took to get here, leaving a country they loved because they were forced out and always feeling like this land was a temporary stop before they went back, which they never could return.
I build abstract pattern paintings in layered oil, exploring where the body belongs on the earth and what it means to carry a homeland inside you when that land is no longer yours. Drawing on the memory of textiles, the cellular structures of nature, and the visual language of diaspora I create dense, restless fields of form and color that hold both grief and beauty at once.
My invented vocabulary of nested ovals, rounded rectangles, and interlocking organic shapes reads like a kind of cellular language, almost biological or microscopic, as if painting the texture of living systems. Every inch of the canvas is active, an underlying rhythm governs how the forms cluster and breathe. The color is confident and joyful, even when the subject is loss.
These paintings have real presence in a room. They reward the kind of looking that reveals more over time — and what you find in them is yours.
Making art whether it be on stage, on the canvas, or in metal. It's all connected. The more I work, the more questions beget questions, why make anything at all. But my history is calling and it is important to share, it's important to unfold the hidden notes I left all over, I thought I hid them well, but here I am finding them again.
About the influence of music on my work
The name devildoll comes from the band X, a punk band from L.A., I found that punk filled many holes in me for many years. So much humor and pain in the punk and hardcore movement, and it fed my soul for a long time. Music is healing and art is expression. It comes from every part of me. Punk was a family I was trying to join, I thought it would fill that hole in me, rootless hole. It did not fill that hole, it really didn't want me either. Nowadays music is still a major source of creativity and inspiration. It is hard to specify the music type I listen to now, but I am always searching for new music and going down rabbit holes of different types. (Thanks Pandora!) A few of my current faves are Tame Impala, Ben Bömer, Tycho, Amon Tobin, Aquasky, alt-J, Boards of Canada, Ulrich Schnauss, Caribou, Aan, Chet Faker, Deadmau5, Bonobo, Yppah. And of course, Hip Hop, especially from the early days. I use a lot of lyrics and song titles as titles to paintings and you may recognize some Tom Waits, Cat Power and Beck. The underlying mood and poetry of these musicians and writers inspire me and sometimes capture the moment of expression better than I ever could.
I'm also a married mother of 2 boys, which has unbalanced and balanced me over and over. Being an artist, wife and a mother poses so many challenges that I end up feeling so grateful for: they help to constantly reshape me. The boys are older now, 16 and 18, I have a better balance and perspective. It's been an intense struggle, but growth is not optional if you want to live a full life.
email: [email protected] Instagram @thedevildoll TikTok: @thedevildolli Acting website www.emilykeyishian.com
Interested in hearing more? Interview here with William Sky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi-2s49gIp4&feature=youtu.be
Press https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/bcnarts-piedmont-artist-actor-emily-keyishian-21232063.php
In-studio process photos in collaboration with the amazing Jonathan Botkin https://www.oddbotkin.com/
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In-studio process photos in collaboration with the amazing Jonathan Botkin
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Eric Hammer's painting of me from when we shared space in the same building in NYC at 195 Chrystie St
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bonus items- I made a series of fabric works in 2010-2011 showcasing my illustrations
