Alexandra Manukyan, 1963 | Surrealist symbolism painter

Alexandra Manukyan was born and raised in Armenia.

She graduated from Fine Art College, and subsequently State Pedagogical University, where she majored in Teaching Fine Arts.

Upon Immigrating to Los Angeles in 1990, Alexandra's focus turned towards fashion.

She graduated from fashion school and worked in the industry as a designer for two decades.

Osho Rajneesh: "Se l'amore diventa profondo, resti in silenzio"...

• "Fa' di ogni passo una tua scelta. Crea te stesso e assumitene l'intera responsabilità".

• "La vita ha due polarità: l'essere e il fare. L'essere è la tua natura: è sempre con te, non devi fare nulla per averlo. È qualcosa che esiste già, che sei fin da ora; non è qualcosa che possiedi. Non esiste nessuna distanza: sei già il tuo essere. Il fare è una conquista".

• "Il problema autentico è risvegliare nell'individuo quel tanto di consapevolezza capace di generare in lui il desiderio di divenire libero, intelligente, autorealizzato e pienamente consapevole".

• "L'ego è uno sforzo costante per andare controcorrente".

Rene Magritte

Vincent van Gogh's suicide letter

Vincent van Gogh was an influential artist during the nineteenth century.

Widely believed to have been struggling with depression and insanity, he went out to a nearby field and shot himself in the chest, before stumbling back to his house where his brother Theo cared for him for two days, before he finally died.

Although he had sent a letter to Theo only three days earlier, he was carrying another letter to his brother on his person at the time of his suicide, largely seen as a suicide note.

Van Gogh severed his own ear with a razor in 1888 | The Courtauld Gallery London

Vincent van Gogh | Studies of heads

Van Gogh considered the modern portrait to be the most important genre for painters.

"What I’m most passionate about, much more than all the rest in my profession - is the portrait, the modern portrait.

I seek it by way of colour, and am certainly not alone in seeking it in this way’, wrote Vincent to this sister Willemien in 1890.

Vincent van Gogh | Head of a woman | Van Gogh Museum

Rosa Schweninger | Genre painter

Rosa Schweninger (1849-1918) was an Austrian painter.

She came from a Viennese artist family; she was the daughter of the painter Carl Schweninger the Elder (1818-1887) and sister of the painter Carl Schweninger the Younger (1854-1903).

After her first painting lessons with her father, she studied painting from 1869 to 1871 at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, under Friedrich Sturm (1822-1898).