About My Style
I began to draw and paint very early, and since childhood, I had my own distinct style. My art teacher was Tachat Oganesov (1922-1991), a nationally recognized artist, art historian, and lecturer at the Tashkent Theater and Artistic Art Institute.
From the beginning and in the years that followed he tried many times, rather unsuccessfully, to change my style to more traditional, ‘realistic’ techniques.
I however, felt that my art as well as my style were coming from inside me, and I chose to rely heavily on intuition – and my intuition was dictating its own style. Without that connection to ‘myself’, I felt I would lose the fluidity of work, the process of making art would break down and become confusing, slow-moving, and cumbersome.
How I Create
The amount of time I sit for a session varies, but when I feel inspired, a fluidity of experience, my intuition, it’s not unusual for me to sit for 16 or more hours uninterrupted, doing the tiny detail work that’s present in many of my pieces. I do plan my work in advance, but not in detail. As I draw, the small details of the piece reveal themselves as I go. I’m as much an observer as I am a creator.
My educational background in theoretical math combined with an interest in technology also finds expression in my art. The paintings reveal my lifelong preoccupation with geometric shapes and patterns. I examine symmetry through the notion of abstraction, spatial relationships, and geometric transformations such as rotation, reflection, and scaling.
There is no linear progression of time, stillness, or singularity, but rather I am looking for a way to introduce multidimensionality and depth, to create an effect of speed and intensity, leading to a conclusion of constant change and velocity independent of the weight of the body.
I also explore color combinations; how contrasting colors could be balanced with one another, finding the harmony of colors, and how the tensions and relationships between colors can be played on the canvas. Most of my work is trying to explore the philosophical aspects of love and loss, light and darkness, hope and despair.