During high school, Blair Hakimian used her bedroom as her art studio, scraping paint and materials from the hardwood floors as she left for college.
The Jacksonville native didn’t intend to return home after earning her fine arts degree in 2012 from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Friends asked, why not move to a larger cultural environment in Los Angeles, New York or Atlanta?
However, Hakimian found Jacksonville offered opportunities.
First, home is where family and many friends remained. “I enjoyed being here,” she said.
Second, Jacksonville offers a cultural dimension for a young artist.
“It’s fun for me to be a part of growing Jacksonville’s art scene,” said the 26-year-old. “Jacksonville has so much potential.”
Hakimian operates among two careers.
At nights and on weekends, she creates art, working primarily on commission for private buyers, through Blair Hakimian Original Art. She paints, draws, sculpts and even has welded a piece during a class at the University of North Florida.
In addition, she restores art pieces and antique furniture, teaches classes and volunteers, serving with The Contemporaries of the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville and the Cathedral Arts Project.
On weekdays, she works for her father, Ben, at Hakimian Holdings.
Joining the company two years ago in marketing, she has obtained her real estate sales associate license and has moved to the property management side.
“I have one of the best teachers out there — my dad,” she said.
Victoria Blair Hakimian is the oldest of six children and a decade older than her youngest sister, who is in high school. Two girls bracket two boys on each end of the age spectrum.
She shares a first name with her mother, Victoria Paige, but each goes by their middle name.
Blair Hakimian hadn’t intended to join the family business, but is learning from her father, “shadowing him, observing how a project comes together.”
She describes Hakimian Holdings’ goal as identifying and buying undervalued retail centers and buildings and projecting where the market will be in three to five years.
“It’s been a successful strategy,” she said.
After working weekdays in the corporate world, she transitions at nights and weekends into her artistic universe, using gallery space at the Merchants Walk, a Hakimian property. She takes appointments.
Hakimian creates portraits, large spatial paintings, drawings of nudes, and metal and ceramic sculpture.
Among her popular products are her pen-and-ink and watercolor depictions of private homes. That began after she donated artwork to a silent auction and the buyer commissioned her for a portrait of the family residence. Word spread.
Based on a recommendation, Jacksonville resident Susanna Barton commissioned a drawing of the family’s home as a gift to her husband, David.
Barton said she had very little contact with Hakimian during the process, other than communication that she had taken a few photos of the home.
“When I saw the finished product, I was bowled over,” Barton said.
Barton said she wanted to immortalize the home, where they have lived and made memories for almost 16 years.
“She captured some of the little things about our home that I would never be able to describe — its sunniness under full tree coverage, its welcoming presence,” Barton said.
Hakimian is a graduate of The Bolles School, where Barton is a communications associate.
Clients commission the home drawings and other artwork as gifts. For example, wives also have commissioned tasteful nude drawings of themselves for their husbands.
One of her largest pieces is a painting of the human heart that is displayed in Dr. Dominick Angiollilo’s cardiology office in the UF Health Center in Springfield.
The work, “Cuore Mio,” translates into “Heart of Mine” and features Hakimian’s love of texture. “Everybody wanted to touch it,” she said.
It’s a major compliment when customers commission her to create what she envisions.
“My favorite clients are those who say, ‘I want something for this space. I trust you,’” she said.
Hakimian said she opened in the Merchants Walk with the intention of operating a gallery, but it developed into a workspace.
In addition to finished pieces, she displays projects in various degrees of completion.
An old sofa sits ready for restoration. Big slices of a fallen oak tree are stacked for transformation. Samples of tiles, left from a former tenant, rest against the wall as potential artwork.
Decorations from The Contemporaries’ New Year’s Eve party for MOCA rest on the floor. Materials and supplies are arranged on shelves.
Hakimian sees a future in creating art.
“It’s something you can do forever. There’s inspiration everywhere,” she said.
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