I was born in Pyatigorsk on July 29th, 1989 and lived there until I was five years old. Now I live in Sergiev Posad, but even before I arrived there, I spent some time living in Saint Petersburg. I there lay in a hospital while they made me prosthetics. In the hospital I spent a long time bedridden, and as a result, I started to draw. Back then I was only eight years old.

Following the death of my grandmother, my mother suddenly decided that we should leave from Pyatigorsk; it was as though something was telling her to go, but she did not understand what exactly. Then, a year after departure, we read in the newspaper about an explosion in a train in Pyatigorsk. It was an act of terrorism. Ever since, I have thought that if we had not left when we did, we might’ve been on that train…but in the end everything worked out the way it was meant to.

In Sergiev Posad I studied in a remarkable grammar school, where nearby there was a nice small forest that I really enjoyed and felt pleasant spending time in.  With my friends, we often went on camping trips, built tents, had picnics, and even went out with the teachers sometimes. Even more interesting than being with other children, though, was when I was alone in the woods.

I never learned to draw professionally; I just tried to explore the extent of my abilities little by little. I sat down by myself in my room, since I wasn’t allowed to draw in school. I drew absolutely everything that I could see. I began with icons because the lines seemed easier to draw, but gradually I found out that the further I explored, the more difficult they seemed to be.  I think that I began with icons because I studied at an Orthodox school. Generally, it was considered art, but there were no art teachers, and I got tired of drawing just icons. I tried to draw an icon of Kazan the Divine Mother, and I worked on it for three years: from the age of ten to thirteen years. I think, it turned out well in the end, but after that I stopped with such serious icons and I started with just usual figures. Most of all I am involved with portraits. And still the schedule very much it is pleasant to me. Before the present, I never really tried painting; only until more recently I started with paint: at 14 years old I experimented with gouache, and at 15 years old I used oil paints for the first time.

I’ve always tried to look narrowly at the world, nobody taught me to. To me, life is just a philosophy and our problem is to comprehend it. At first I started with examining books. When was small I didn’t like to read, but to peruse books I simply adored. Where ever I go, to a shop or on a walk, I shall always go with pleasure…examining everything in the shops, or remembering each meeting with someone I have on the street; each trifling detail I remember and I study closely. Because the world around of us is so diverse and interesting.  I especially love nature, to the point that if we leave to go on a picnic, it is practically impossible for me to leave the woods. When I began to draw, I immediately started to compare what I drew with other works. First, that’s my schoolmates also did, but I got tired of doing that and I have moved forward to more serious, real works on my own.

I now study in Moscow, in a special college named as a Rehabilitation Center for Invalids, in the department of Visual Arts. I was accepted after passing examinations and after submitting creative competition portfolios.  It was all not too complex, only it was necessary to suffer a little from the basic requirements.

Now I feel that drawing is necessary, and for me is the result of a divine intervention. When I was small, most things  came to me difficultly because of my handicap... I mean, I could walk and run, but this was absolutely not interesting for me. I had an older brother who was all time with my mom, and I was left to myself in a room. I never was given anything to do, and as I said, one day I started to draw.  Sometimes it happens that I’m called from the other room for dinner, but I don’t respond because I’ve simply drawn myself to sleep. 

Now that I’ve become older, I’ve developed more interests, not just drawing. I have started to be successfully engaged in sports: table tennis (ping pong) and volleyball.  For volleyball I even played on my school’s team; while on it we earned fourth place in a league of nineteen teams!!

And still I take a great interest in writing prose.  Below I have written a poem which "Gratitude" refers to. It is gratitude that I in childhood did not begin with anything else but to draw.

 Gratitude

 Thank you,

For the clear dawn,

For all talent that the Lord has given me, saying: " I give this to you! "

For everything, I’m grateful.

In fact, earlier I did not draw with such delight.

But now I would speak about it much, but instead I shall only say:

"I’m so thankful! Thank you!! "

Painting the human figure is certainly very much my strength, but I recently have tried sculpting; in this branch I would like to develop and expand my abilities. Clay works are certainly easier for me than stone or metal sculpting, but I shall definitely think up something to get around my physical limits. I’m already planning to make the necessary designs/plans for metal sculptures I want to do, and I’ll just have to find somebody who can cast it for me. I’m not the wizard, but everything will turn out the way I want it to if I just wish it to be.  I think in general everyone should think the same way about their own lives. 

To the "Maria's Children" studio I have come for about two years. I really enjoy the atmosphere of it, because it is very accessible and organized for the young artist.  There are many children who come who don’t have a passion or an outlet in their lives, but over time I see how they all seem to find that missing part in their life.  Like for me, as an example, my happiness in life isn’t just from having a mother, father and friends; it is from learning to deal with what you are given in life and find passion from it.  Children here in the studio find for themselves something they really enjoy to do.

Being in the studio, I’ve also realized the extensive interest I have in children; I knew I liked children, but I never realized how being older in age for some kids can make you an admired mentor for their artistic development.

I very much like the idea of clowning. This activity, strangely enough, can immediately raise the I.Q. of the child if the spontaneity is embraced and improve skills are utilized.  In clown costume, one can immediately start to develop and understand that he/she is very much able to touch each child with whom he/she plays, simply by finding interesting/unique ways to interact with the child.

Most importantly, however, is that you’re doing something for someone else.  When it turns out that you’re inspiring happiness in yourself and in another simultaneously, by simply smiling and focusing your energy on them, it makes one realize how easily and necessarily life should be made in this thoughtful model.

Here at the studio we have a lot of talented young clowns between the ages of nine to eighteen. I tried, for my first time, in a hospital in Kazan.  I remember that the children greeted us warily, but by the time we left, they all were excitedly seeing us off as good friends would.   The children ran out into the street after us, and those who could not leave their rooms, were placed alongside their windows and shouted from above: "Come again! " I got to know so many of the remarkable children in that hospital, by simply being open and sociable. It seems to me, that if we could gather enough people willing to be like a clown, this whole country would be easier to live in.