BRINGING EASTERN TRADITION TO A WESTERN MOVEMENT
By: FULL MOON ART WORK BY: Olga Nenazhivina
Autoportrait 1
Looking at Olga Nenazhivinas work is like peering into an era of art where tradition and its reprise were rewritten with modern thought. Where society, culture, and free thinking became art. Her work isn’t inspired by these ideas but are the traces of this modernist movement in present day. Full Moon sat down with Olga Nenazhivina and pick apart the brain of an artist that brings Eastern tradition to a Western movement.
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FULL MOON: First, could you tell our readers a bit about yourself? How would you sum up your creative background?
Olga Nenazhivinas: My father is an artist and my mother is the one who loves my father and art. They always lived an artistic life and when they had me they had no doubts I would be an artist. By looking at them I had no doubts as well. They put me in old suitcase, which became my first bed and my first art studio; there I found my first pencils. My parents moved from one place to another and I drew, drew, drew.
That was a happy time. I used to draw on any surface I could possibly find: on paper, walls, and asphalt, everywhere. I loved reading books with paintings of great artists and anatomy books as a child.
My mother used to help me to finish my first drawings and father used to explain to me what composition means and how to make a drawing complete.
And when I turned four, I began to call my activity work. Most important, I knew what art was.
Now I am an adult, all my life I did what I like and studied it, but now I think I do not know what art is.
Everything is all right
FM: You are a Russian-born artist, why does eastern culture continue to have such a profound effect on your work? What aspects of western culture do you explore in your work?
ON: Yes, I am from Russia, but I grew up in the Eastern part, on the shores of the Sea of Japan, on the border with Japan, China and Korea.
The East has become a part of me. Besides, I have Asian blood in my veins, my grandmother belonged to the ethnic group of Gurans, and these people lived on the shores of Baikal Lake and had Mongolian roots.
Culture, East or West - is a huge treasure store of human history. Like any creative person, I am interested in all its aspects.
Flight
FM: You recently moved to the States. What has the transition been like for you? Do you see a difference in how art is appreciated between the United States and Russia?
ON: Rather, we can speak about the human qualities and relationships. Many people confuse art with commerce. You see, our planet is small. In general people are the same everywhere. So in my opinion, the attitude toward art is the same everywhere.
FM: If you were commissioned for an artist portrait, which artist (living or dead) would you want it to be of?
ON: I love life and people who are alive …. I would draw my artist friends, but most likely myself.
FM: In your opinion, how has the digital age (of internet and television) affected western society’s perception of art?
ON: Everything benefits real art, the digital era too. Art, both in the West and the East suffers not from new developments, but from parasites and commerce.
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FM: If you had the world’s attention for just one minute, a chance to convey a singular message through your art, what would it be and why?
ON: People, be merciful! It is the core of life.
FM: Art is often described as a ‘conversation’ between the artist and their audience. What do you hope the first sentence of that conversation will be?
ON: Only about love!
Snow