Two words best describe 88-year-old La Jolla artist-author Peggy Hinaekian. Those words are passionate and prolific.

Working from her private art studio, Hinaekian, who’s traveled and lived worldwide, demonstrates that you can age and still be creative. She is proving daily that the power to create – and innovate – never grows old.

La Jolla Village News met up with her recently to discuss her 70-plus-year career, and to find out what motivates her to continue to paint, write, and be inspired by life.

“I started in Egypt as a kid,” said Hinaekian of painting noting her father, an interior decorator, encouraged her. She pointed out she’s done lots of other things during her long life, including having been a fashion model in Montreal, following that up with being a fashion designer in Boston, and New York. “I worked with Jackie Kennedy’s wedding designer,” Hinaekian noted.

After that, Hinaekian worked for the United Nations as a research assistant.

She said it was in Switzerland where her art career really “took off in leaps and bounds. I exhibited all over Europe and Christie’s Contemporary Art of London distributed my etchings all over the world.”

Concerning what prompted her to take up art, Hinaekian answered: “It’s a passion. I’ve got so many ideas in my head that they’ve got to come out.”

The themes of Hinaekian’s art are both simple and universal. She is drawn to both couples and animals, especially cats and birds, including a recent painting titled Birds on a Wire.

“Then I evolved into abstracts,” she continued, pointing to her first abstract painting she got a price for while in Montreal, which she never sold “because it was her first one,” now hanging above her doorway.

Hinaekian explained why she favors abstract painting. “You put your feelings (in) and create an emotion,” she said adding, “Several times people have looked at my abstract paintings and they’ve seen things I haven’t seen. Which is good, I like them to be involved like that.”

Added Hinaekian of her painting style: “My abstracts are more monochromatic. I create spaces with objects maybe floating in them, or not. My whole thing is all about freedom of movement. And that’s why I like birds because birds depict freedom. It’s just a matter of how I see life.”

How many paintings has she done? “I have made thousands,” she replied adding, “I’m contacting nonprofits to donate my etchings that they can sell and keep all the proceeds.”

Hinaekian exhibits locally in La Jolla at the Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery and has a table in front of La Jolla’s Farmers Market on Sundays. She noted she has written four books, which she also did cover and inside art for, becoming an author late in life starting at age 80. Her books have a distinctly erotic tone, like a fictional work set in Egypt.

“I started doing short stories, and I thought, ‘Why not do a book?’” she said of becoming an author. She added a Swiss reporter got hold of one of her erotic books once and wrote an article about it and the title read: “Grandma writes an erotic book.” She added, “I had a lot of success with that book so then I started writing more.”

Of her methodology, Hanaekian said: “I just work all the time.”

Revealing her secret to longevity, Hinaekian concluded: “It’s having a passion. If you don’t have a passion – don’t live.”

PEGGY HINAEKIAN

Born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, La Jolla artist and author Peggy Hinaekian, 88, has had 200 art shows on three continents. Her etchings have been distributed by Christie’s Contemporary Art of London. She also has gallery representation in La Jolla, Newport Beach, Birmingham, Ala., and Tulsa, Okla., as well as in Switzerland and Germany.

Hinaekian’s paintings are in three museum collections. The Queen of Norway and the ex-Empress of Iran have some of her paintings. She has had write-ups in magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and Europe. She has also done TV and radio shows in the U.S. and Europe. She has published four books, one of which is a memoir about her life in Egypt and Manhattan. For more information about her visit The Girl from Cairo/Peggy Hinaekian, or call 954-952-2210.