ruzanna hanesyan portfolio

united states

Ruzanna Hanesyan (she/her) is a Yerevan born and Pasadena, California based teaching artist. As part of her art practice, which includes watercolor and clay, she felt the need to learn needlelace making when she first moved to the United States at the age of twenty-five. In 2020, coinciding with war against the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh, she participated in an online class taught by Yerevan-based maker Mariam Gharibyan offered for Armenian diasporans.

Motivated by cultural and ancestral continuity but most importantly a personal need to express, Ruzanna has continued to practice lace making, asserting that the “sculptural lace of my hands” is a “language that I had to be equipped with in order to express my art practice and create community.” With needlelace, she tries to "mirror how we exist in the world.” She notes: “Just like the lace, we take space, we leave gaps, we hold, connect and disconnect. Lace becomes a metaphor for how my body holds presence and absence.”

Ruzanna only learned about the tradition when she first moved to the Los Angeles area and conducted art and familial research. Because those in her family who practiced Armenian needlelace are long gone and their creations lost or gifted, she was surprised to discover that needlelace making was practiced in her maternal lineage, including by her own mother as a child. She came to see that the lace has always been part of her life.

As a needlelace teacher, Ruzanna offers in-person classes in Pasadena and teaches online via one-on-one meetings. She also offers workshops during art events and openings in Pasadena.