Biography
"Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them and they flew."
(Guillaume Apollinaire, 1880-1918)
During my life I have been on a very long journey to reach the point I am at now to have the opportunity to be an artist and do what I love most in my life. It would take time long enough to write a book to describe all of my experiences, and maybe one day I will do this. Maybe, I am already doing it within my paintings.
Art takes such a big part of my life that I would say it is my life. Painting is like breathing for me, something that is vital, absolutely essential for me. I would like to tell you a little story from my childhood, which I believe, has influenced my whole life. I was born in the Far North of Russia, which is closer to Alaska than to Moscow, and for the first four years of my life I saw only endless white fields of polar snow around me. When I was 4 years old, I moved with my Mum to the one of the most beautiful parts of Russia – the Urals’ Mountains area. I remember very clearly the morning, when I woke up and saw flowers the first time in my life. Being a small child, and having only ever seen the whiteness of snow before, I couldn’t imagine how colourful the world around me can be.
I was almost shocked by the colours of flowers and their beauty. This amazing feeling of admiration of nature is still deep inside me. I remember the fear of that little girl, who had only just discovered all of this beauty, that it might disappear from my life and tomorrow I would see the only white of the snow instead of the flowers once again. I felt at that moment the strongest desire to save the beauty of the world in my life forever. I believe it was the moment when the Artist inside me was born.
Following this experience in my life, when I started to explore painting, of course, the first subjects were images of flowers and leaves. Painting was my passion from the very childhood and as far back as I can remember I painted everywhere I could find a spare place - on walls, on furniture and on doors, on clothes and even in lesson books at school. Later on I begun to experiment with painting on silk because I felt the surface of silk is similar to the surface of flowers' petals - soft, silky and warm. Then there followed numerous experiments in different media and styles.
Whatever I was doing in my life, I always wanted to be an artist. I used to study at Music College as a chorus conductor, I sang in a rock-band and wrote songs and lyrics, I had my own fashion house for three years and worked as a window-designer - all of my activities were relative to art. I finished Art School in Russia (part-time for 2 years) with the Distinction Certificate and believe that Russian school of drawing and painting has a very big influence on me, as well as music and literature. The Art School provided me with some necessary basic artistic skills that were waiting for developing and improvement at the right time. I always worked in the fields related to art, but never had a time or opportunity to become a full-time professional painter.
In the beginning of 2005, I ventured to apply to a dream place to study for any artists - the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London that is worldly known of its famous alumni such as Peter Doig, Anish Kapoor, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQuinn etc. I was accepted and in October of 2005 I began my studying. Then BA followed, and then I continued with Masters Degree course at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. In 2008 I have successfully completed my education at the University of the Arts London with Masters Degree in Fine Art. I live in London and constantly exhibit my works around the UK, in Europe and USA. My paintings have been reqognised with several international Painting Awards and Prizes.
Though my paintings take most of my time, aside from my work I love reading and learning foreign languages. I enjoy music, from classical to rock, roller-skating and walking in a country side or anywhere by the sea. I am a Cossack and love riding horses - I believe that loving horses is genetically germinated in me through the generations as well as loving Freedom. .
I enjoy travelling and would love to travel the world as much as possible. My most desirable destinations at the moment are Japan (Tokyo), Los Angeles, China (Beijing), Bali and Gambia. I love exploring mysterious places such as the Egyptian Pyramids and often have my own theories about any kind of mysteries and enigmatic phenomenon. I would love to visit the temple complex of Baalbek in Lebanon, the ancient Mayan city of Palenque and the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico, also the Inca archaeological site Ollantaytambo and Nasca Desert in Peru. There are so many places on the Earth I would love to see - the list is endless.
I believe that we all create the World within our energy and I do believe in the Power of the Universe.
