In her series “Beer with a Painter,” Hyperalleric’s Jennifer Samet sat down with Charles Garabedian to chat about his childhood, his indirect path to becoming an artist, and what he’s still learning from painting everyday at 91 years of age.

Here’s an excerpt:

For the last few months I have been painting Iphigenia. Iphigenia’s father sacrificed her, so that the fleet could sail off to Troy. She was bound and gagged so she couldn’t curse them as they sailed off. I think, if you have to have a subject, it might as well be tragic. You grow older and you see life in a simpler or different way, and it can be looked at tragically. Tragedy is not necessarily painful; it is just tragedy. – Charles Garabedian

Click here to read the complete interview.

His forthcoming exhibition Sacrifice for the Fleet opens at L.A. Louver on October 8, 2015.

IMAGE: Charles Garabedian, Iphigenia, 2015, acrylic on paper, 36 x 93 in. (91.4 x 236.2 cm)