About drawing
I need nothing more than a table, a chair, a piece of paper and a pencil to start drawing. Often I have all those but something stops me still. Maybe it’s the forthcoming hours of hard work before me or the vague idea about the final result which I aspire. Therefore I often take the pencil and begin scribbling, but…avoiding any outline action from the outset, because in this way I would put a framework in which I will act later. Gradually, my mind begins to form the idea of shapes, textures and techniques which I need to finish the work. The key to success is patience. It is that patience to put line after line keeping idea of the overall image only in my imagination. Patience helps me not to bend before despair, after working for several hours when I realize I haven’t been making fast progress. Patience not to give in to boredom, frustration, disappointment, excitement ...
Taking into consideration all that, it’s really hard for me to reach for the pencil and begin drawing. I often want to abandon everything and to get away from the monotonous rhythm of lines and shapes, to stop dreaming hexagonal dreams and mazes in which my mind is roaming... In such moments, I focus on my will and keep on going, because the only way to make things happen is "to continue".
Of course, some of my works are unfinished. The audience might think that after all, my patience had left me. It is just inappropriate to justify myself. The explanation is simple. Maybe it seems prosaic, but the only reason to leave things unfinished is running out of ink refill or the impossibility to find similar. Later on I have come up with ideas for completing a particular piece of work by using different tools. Unfortunately the differences are too obvious and not very nice and I wasn’t really pleased with the outcome, so I would rather leave some works unfinished. Maybe someday I will have them finished, but for now they help me as they are, showing me the way I have gone through to be here.
Welcome to my virtual gallery
I have presented here some of my works that I have in digital format and I managed to scan in the years. Many of my early pieces have disappeared into nothingness while they have been waiting for their author to believe in his ability to create beauty.
My aim is to promote my artwork on this site. Although I am self-taught in drawing, I try to compensate my unskilfulness in drawing with great patience and other skills that I have acquired and cultivated myself.
The process of creating my artwork does not take much funds or material resources. The only conditions for the success are the right mental tuning and of course - patience. Some of my artwork have taken me months. Is it worth? Judge for yourself.
I started in the mid-80s. My first hexagon was created during a high school Russian language lesson. At the beginning I just filled sheet aftersheet of polygons as a part of meditative practice aimed at remembering the school knowledge. Later on I decided to give forms of the hexagons. I could see different shapes in my head forming a variety of 3D images. I followed these forms and shapes and here is what happened.
At first sight the viewer sees a shape. His mind associates this shape with something familiar, for example - a leafor a hand. At this level, that I call “the macro level”, my works might seem a bit naive, as the forms that I recreate are stylized and simplified. Besides this level, however, there is another one - the level of contemplation. The viewer can dip into this level by studying the labyrinth formed by numerous lines that construct the shapes. Those who know, can easily find the essence of the work through contemplation. After a while, the perception achieved by staring, can give the viewer a frame of mind that reveals the original concept and intention of the work. Each image is a "koan", which has a hidden meaning. The sense is encoded in the work with great patience and only with patience and contemplation it could be revealed.