Intervew was given in 2004

I am 24 years old, born December 22, 1982. I studied in Auxiliary School/Orphanage # 103; I completed there 9 classes.

Once in the autumn, when I was 9 years old, Maria came with small group of foreigners to my school. They were dressed as clowns. They went on to all the different classes and, finally, came into our class. We sat at school desks; it was strict at school back then. The clowns began to get acquainted with us, to amuse us, and we started to communicate. Very quickly, the next day, Maria came again by herself and we got to know each other even more. She visited frequently, took some of us home with her occasionally, and we started drawing together. Maria taught us how. We just drew, whatever we wanted.  

At the time I painted my first painting with Maria, I was in the fourth class. Maria referred to it as "The Underwater World". We thought up the collective painting together, Maria just gave us the theme, and we worked individually to paint the different details, and then put them all together on a large background. 

Then Maria started taking us to the studio. This was not easy to do because we had a strict director; each time someone came for us, it was necessary for them to fill out a long form.  Someone absolutely had to accompany us back, we couldn't be left alone. And had to be back strictly before 8pm. If we couldn't get back on time, which happened a lot, then they didn't want to let us out again. And in some cases, they didn't.  Maria took us to Ostozhenka, where there is an art studio called "Podval", where we met Yulya Sheveleva.  We went there to draw with another small group of 8 people from my class four times a week after classes in the second half of the day.  It was good to study, so that they let us out. 

At the studio on Kropotkinskaya we had different trainings. They taught us how to communicated well with one another so that we were not closed off. We also put on small performances and acted out scenes so that we could know each other better, to learn about each other. Our group grew quietly as more and more people wanted to go to the studio to draw. We already went there almost all week, sometimes until 9pm. We were fed at the studio so we didn't have to go back early for supper. And we didn't want to eat at our school, the food was awful. We were involved more and more at the studio, we liked drawing. All of us together conferred about making a large painting, made of four or six sheets of paper glued together. Someone drew the sky, someone drew the ground, all designated themselves to a part of the now large canvas. In due course, the ceramic arrived at the studio with someone willing to teach us about it, Lena Tatarintseva.

From Ostozhenka we moved to a other studio, and there, it can be said honestly, the conditions were awful. We were just leasing the space at the time, and we even had a ghost story to fit the circumstances. We ourselves constructed the walls, the floor, made it inhabitable. We the children...with only volunteers to guide us, just a few adults. They found us the help and the equipment to make that studio better than it was. 

We organized exhibitions so that people could see what we were doing. If I am not mistaken, the first exhibition was held in 1995. Maria planned it for the time when a group of foreigners [Moscow Clown Tour with Patch Adams] arrived in November. The first exhibition was held in Moscow Central House of Artists. Now, every year in November we have an exhibition for when Patch comes with his group.  We worked a lot for the first exhibition, staying late at the studio to draw, finishing paintings, starting new ones...there were already some paintings specially ordered.   We had only a little bit of time and we were cutting it close. A lot of our efforts were spent on finding a space to hold the exhibition. Maria periodically got tired, so we helped her. We made trips to the space, allocated to us in the CHA with the help of volunteers, helping to hang pictures and such. Others had to call and invite people to come.  Many people even came to the studio as a result of the invitations. There were a lot of people. 

Every November many people gather for the exhibition, its opening always occurs with the clowns. And there we also start to draw some kind of new picture together. Children draw together with the clowns. It is all very cheerful. People come not only to look at the paintings, but also to find out what exactly Maria Yeliseeva does with children. Many comment with 'Wow!', and when looking at the paintings, drawn by small children, are surprised by the talent and say things like, "No way, it can't be, this is definitely adult work."

The second studio was in Prechistenka, and during the time we spent in this studio we painted The Temple of Christ the Savior. We made trips outside with Masha, taking with us easels, paper, and everyone drew individual details of the building.  Someone had to draw a Coca-Cola tent, which I drew and it was my favorite thing I did.  Everyone drew some part that they felt like drawing. We then all of us stuck together our pieces on one big panel and that's how we got our collective mural.  It was really something special, that we thought to even draw the temple as it was...in the middle of renovations with elevating cranes and all.

So by then already every year in November, during vacation Patch Adams arrived with his group of clowns. And began to get to know them more each time. I remember when, for the very first time, they showed up at my school dressed as clowns. I didn't even recognize Maria. We got to go with them to hospitals to clown, and to children's houses too. Our directors let us join them. The whole week we were constantly with foreigners. We learned from one another, we somehow communicated with one another. I still correspond with many of them.

After the first week of the tour in Moscow, the foreigners go to Petersburg to clown there. It happened that Masha had to go directly and in person to negotiate with our director, so that just a couple of us could be allowed to join them for a week in Petersburg. There have been some instances when they didn't allow us to go; if they did, we had to make up for it by completing chores.  We enjoyed ourselves when in Petersburg, visiting hospitals and interacting with the children ill with cancer.

I loved clowning. I liked to see when children laughed, smiled, began to play with my clown nose, running after me, asking for balloons. They would pull me towards them, just so I would play longer with them. They just hadn't seen such things in many years. They lay there months, years, maybe their whole life...and we visit them to amuse, and to cheer them up. 

Finally, the studio space we have now appeared.  Here we ourselves again did renovations, the older kids with teachers. We decorated all the walls with our paintings. Everyone took part. Even the small children and those with DS. We showed them how to do it, to paint, we helped them if something didn't come out right. If we didn't know how to something ourselves, we would ask the adults. 

Maria on her days off would take someone from our group home with her, so that we could get used to living in a family, because in our orphanage, we were all without parents. Many of us had never even seen our parents, they just cast us away; it occurs that when a kid leaves the orphanage and is given an apartment by the government, suddenly his parents can be found. Generally that's how it's done. For example, me, my parents I haven't seen in a long time.  The last time I saw them, was when they brought me to Orphanage No. 103. I saw them through a window, and they weren't allowed to communicate with me. That was it.  And since then I haven't seen not my brother, sister, mother nor father. But somehow I've reconciled this with myself, because my relationship with Masha, going to the studio, interacting with other people, learning more and more, has really helped me.                                       

I got from the studio what I didn't get at the orphanage, which was a dialogue with others.  In the orphanage we had a rough time. On weekends you just sit within the confines of the four walls of the property, looking through wired windows.  But when we met Masha, everything changed. I started to learn something about the world. I fell in love with drawing. More than anything I loved to draw Red Square. We at the studio made such a painting; there everything is included. Masha helped me do sketches, then I did everything myself, painting it all in. Other kids helped me, after which I just realized that I liked such subjects.  The majority of my drawings ended up being of Red Square; I found my inspiration, you could say.

Since childhood I have wanted to be a computer programmer, like Maria's husband Ilya. But to be one you have to know math very well; we had in the orphanage a very low level of education. When to our school children were brought, they're immediately branded as (in our language) 'Imbecil' and are afforded only nine basic grades. When you finish, they assign you somewhere where technical training isn't necessary, like a house-painter or shoe-maker (through PTU training). I didn't want to do that.  I had the dream to be a programmer or to work with cars. So when I graduated from the 9th class, Maria helped me arrange with the School No.7 in the Center of Moscow. I there began towards my career with cars. Many from my class didn't go where the school wanted to assign them.  Because Maria was there for us, others helped us; they provided the money for our training, helped find institutions where we could pursue our interests. Nothing like studying in PTU, where they give you only basic secondary education and then what you want you try to do. I went with Maria. I chose for myself where I would study. Two and a half years I studied and got my diploma. I took my exams, and I was hired at Sherif Company. There I worked as a pupil; I had two instructors who I worked with. Then I worked by myself. When I left Sherif, I found a job on the internet. I gave my resume, and within a week I was hired by Ford. I really wanted to work there, and it seems like forever I waited for their invitation for an interview, and I never faltered in hope. I started to work with them, and in the beginning I studied for four months. Now I presently help Maria when I can, since there aren't enough workers, although there are a lot of tasks and children to be occupied with. From the senior (or 'older') children, namely those of my class [the first group who started to work with Maria], some of us study still and some of us already work. We still hang out, we still call each other and meet at the studio regularly to see Maria.  Not long ago I began filming how the kids paint, clown, so that there was something for them to have in the future. At first I filmed on a digital camera.  When I couldn't go to some event, I asked someone else to film for me. The tapes I regularly labeled and after a period I grew to really like filming. Maria asked if I could make a film about Dasha Grigoryeva, the girl who sews dolls. We decided that it would be a short film, between 20-40 minutes. I filmed how she made the dolls; I asked her questions about what she likes. It was very difficult, as she was very shy, and didn't like it when she is filmed or photographed. In all, there was about eight hours of film to sort through to construct a 30-minute documentary. Then it had to be mounted onto video film. I did this all by myself even though my first time...the interview, the mounting, and I submitted it to the Central Board. I was very worried. When I arrived to the showing, they said that it came out really well. I was relieved. Now I constantly call Maria, to make sure she doesn't forget the camera or that someone else in my place films the activities wherever she goes. I film the kids at the studio as they paint and sculpt; how they interact; how they learn to cook. Masha has a big dream that everything that I've (and others have) filmed, and I mean everything, was compiled into one movie. Even though we don't have the right technical equipment to do it all.  We already have 150 disks and other cassettes.  Besides clowning and drawing, we film our trips and camps.

Every summer in the beginning of May, as the schools/orphanage let out of class for summer, Maria's Children has a one-day retreat on a boat.  All the children from all the different boarding schools, even those with Down Syndrome, get together and we go two hours to Silver Pine Forest.  There we host many different activities for the kids.  On the boat on way to the park, we divide into small groups or 'families' lead by an older kid.  Not just a couple of us draw, but it is assured that everyone draws, including the leaders. Every 'family' creates their own theme and paints something together accordingly.  In June or July, another big 12-14 day camp is organized on a big steamship. Foreigners are invited, clowns, who want to get acquainted with our kids and to help Maria.  Because of the relatively expensive cost of renting the whole ship, each foreigner usually sponsors one or several children besides themselves. We divide also into little families, interact, learn more about one another, draw, compete in relays, and hold mini concerts. 

Also I went with Maria to America.  It was really funny, because I flew there a few days afterwards, with Mikhail Losev, and not with the rest of the group. They flew to New York, visited Washington; where in the White House gave a painting to the president.  The president, though, wasn't there that day, though he should have been. Mikhail and I flew for 12 hours to Seattle from Moscow. It was cool. We arrived at the airport where we were met by Maria and the other kids from my class. They took me for a girl, because then I had long hair after a summer without a trim...I wanted to cut my hair in a different country. They even started to say 'Mikhail, where's Pasha?  Who did you bring with you?' I replied, 'HEY, guys, you don't recognize me?? It's ME!'  It was great.  After that we set out to visit some old friends, who were clowns on one of the earlier tours. Where they lived in Washington, we held an exhibition with the pieces we had brought on the plane and via truck to the site.  There we were celebrated and interviewed.  I got onstage in my suit that had been given to me as a gift. I looked for so long for a suit of my size in Moscow.  I really worried about carrying it in a suitcase because it could get wrinkled.  So in that suit I said a few words about myself, thanked everyone, and even said something in English to which everyone laughed.  It was a full house that day. Even a concert was held in our honor. I don't remember was sung, but it was still awesome. On that trip we periodically drew, sleeping at night separately at different houses. All of Maria's family was there, all four kids, her husband, and us...the first group of Maria's Children kids. That was the summer of 2001. There I even got a chance, with Maria, to drive a car. Once we painted someone's car, because he wanted his old Honda to be decorated 'Maria's Children Style'. I began to carefully clean the car, because otherwise the paint wouldn't distribute equally. It was necessary to wash and clean out the car, and we then all chose a section of the car. We were in a courtyard, it was nighttime, and we began to transform this car into a clown mobile. He still drives that car. 

When we were in Sochi awhile ago, for the summer vacation, Maria came to visit us. Nearby Maria's Children rented out a house, came to us at camp and took three of us with her and her family to draw and paint. Maria for us, the older kids, did so much...her and Ilya are like my parents. Right now I don't have much time to stop by the studio as much as I used to, but I am trying to find more time, because they gave me so much of theirs when I needed it the most. For Masha now it is difficult because she has so many children visiting the studio. Now it's our turn to show the world how the guidance, the affection, the care introduced to us by Maria's Children we will never forget.  We are on the right path, and I am grateful for everything. I will help them however I can.