'Artists can transform our reality to a better place.'
Arina Gordienko draws upon her cultural context of being a Russian born artist now living in the UK. With an existing background in musical studies and creative arts, her determination to study Fine Art in London saw her learn to speak the English language in order to do so. Arina describes her work as ‘hyper-surrealism’, and justifiably her finely detailed and deeply thoughtful work receives acclaim and recognition around the globe.
Where is your current studio? What would be your dream studio?
I used to work at an absolutely stunning, large and airy studio in London for 6 years, and it was my second home. I can say that actually it was a dream studio, it was just perfect and I loved it to bits. The studio was located in the heart of London, on 7th floor of the artists’ studios building and through its huge windows I could see London’s roofs and horizon. I was very happy to work there. Sadly, a few years ago the whole building was knocked down and since then I work at my home studio, which is much smaller and it feels different after having a luxuriously huge working place. But I look at the situation positively – I still have a place where I can work. The only problem my husband and I are facing now – the studio is spreading all over the house :) It’s ok to work at home for a while but there is lots of destruction from work and I’m really looking forward to move into an appropriate large artist’s studio. I work with quite large scale paintings, so my dream studio should be able to accommodate my large canvases and all inventory. Do you prefer to work in silence or does certain music inspire you?
It depends. I must admit that I’m spoilt with choice because my husband is a professional expert in rock music, he particularly specialises on rare and collectible records. He has a huge (huge!) collection of rock music of all sorts, so I can choose and listen to anything from very familiar to something I’ve never heard before. Browsing his music collection feels like an adventure, you never know what you can find over there. I prefer something melodic like Yann Tiersen, Enya, Mike Oldfield and Vangelis. Often I listen to classical music or opera, my favourites are Beethoven and Georgy Sviridov, I can listen to them again and again. I love ‘Tosca’ Puchini and a heavenly voice of Anna Netrebko. Recently I also started listening to audio books, mainly sci-fi. I love Robert Sheckley, Strugatsky Brothers, Robert Heinlein and so on, and the list is endless.
Studio life can lead to isolation, how do you address this/ keep a balance?
That’s true, life style of an artist leads to isolation. It sound weird but it is true. And it is very strange because artists have always been considered as bohemian class and it meant that they socialise a lot with each other, like impressionists in Paris drinking absent and having fun all the time. Nowadays it seems like being an artist means to be almost all the time on your own working at the studio. Yes, from time to time there are some exciting art events and exhibitions but it is not that often. Sometimes I do feel a bit isolated and distanced from reality and I do appreciate some warm and live communication once I’ve got a spare time for it. Internet helps, of course, and we are blessed to have a chance to communicate with other world and even exhibit virtually. I am trying to keep a balance between real world and my studio where I live rather in the world of my imagination. Describe a moment you had an epiphany concerning your creative life.
I think I was always interested in arts, it’s been a part of me since childhood, I grew up with it inside of me. As far back as I can remember I draw and painted everywhere I could find a surface that can be used for drawing or painting including walls and furniture and my Mum had never stopped me from doing so. From my childhood I had lots of paper sheets for watercolours and drawings. I can share with you a beautiful story from my childhood that, I guess, has influenced my whole life. I was born in the Far North of Russia, in an Arctic/Polar region called Chukotka, which is close to Alaska, and there is only one night and one day a year – six month each. Imagine being six months in total light and six months in twilight or total darkness. For the first four years of my life I saw only endless white fields of snow around me. I remember never ending winter and endless crispy white fields of snow spreading around down to the horizon. I remember Northern deer and Northern Lights, and my Mum used to tell me that I was actually born under those Lights. When I was 4 years old, my Mum moved with me to one of the most beautiful parts of Russia – the Urals’ Mountains area. I remember the morning when I woke up, walked to the garden and saw flowers and grass for the first time in my life – a splash of colours on vivid grass green. I was overwhelmed as I could not believe that there are so many colours are around and I wanted to save the beauty in my life forever. I believe it was the moment when the Artist inside me was born.
What is your favourite/ least favourite part of the creative process?
I love working in my studio, I feel peaceful and blessed when I work. It takes me about 180-200 hours to complete one painting and I love every moment of my work. If I do not work for a couple of days my mood is going down and I physically feel myself worse, so I prefer to work every day.
For me creative process begins from the moment when something clicks in my head and becomes an obsessive idea for a new work. It’s unpredictable when a new idea comes and why. It all starts from some kind of ‘itching’ in the head, an odd feeling when something is swirling in the brain and requires your awareness and entire attention, it is literally demanding to be materialised. It’s amazing feeling when you start new work - looking at blank canvas, touching it and knowing that soon there will be a new creation.
But the most magical and fascinating moment in the working process is when it’s getting close to the completion of the work. For weeks I work on a painting and look at it hundreds times. I know every inch of its surface and I watch my painting growing, changing and evolving under my brushes. And then, at some unexpected point I suddenly feel that the image on the painting is magically watching me back – as if it looks at me! This mysterious moment always gives me goose bumps and shivers run down my spine. It means that the work is finished, no need to touch it anymore, it lives its own live from now on. I love this moment and look forward to it from the very beginning.
Do you have a personal mantra or quote which serves to motivate you?
My life experience has taught me one important lesson – if you want to achieve something, you have to move and get yourself ready for working hard. I don’t take anything for granted and don’t expect that inspiration will come to me from nowhere on a daily basis just because I wait for it. But if I still want an inspiring moment and mood to come, I have to go to my studio and start working. Inspiration is a luxurious gift; and when you concentrate on your work, in an hour or so you are getting in tune with this work, you begin to resonate with something that is beyond and above, some kind of creative energy that flows throughout you and your work. It is that very inspiration that moves you forward and you feel like you can fly. It is not guaranteed, but if you don’t start working - inspiration might never come. It works for me this way - I have to start my working process to get inspired, not the other way around. I trained myself do not wait for motivation and inspiration, I prefer just take my brushes and start working, and often it’s been rewarded.
Creative process generates a very strong energy and vibrations that flow through creators’ body and mind. The more we get involved in the creative process the stronger the creative energy around is. It can be called inspiration. I guess that many artists can confirm that when they passionately work on something they feel some kind of vibration that helps to create.
I think that creative energy and its creator generate each other equally - it is a mutual process, and it feels fulfilling and inspiring. It’s all about energy in the Universe; vibrations and frequencies move through everybody and everything – we are all connected. Any vibrations that have been produced during the working process are inevitably imprinted directly into any artworks. I hope that viewers of my works can feel inspiration and positive creative energy that I share with them.
How has your style evolved and what contributed to the changes?
This question is very important to me because for a long time I was creating a body of works in one particular style that was considered as my ‘signature’ style. I did not call it as such, other artists did. I was painting personages mainly in monochrome with a vivid accent – red scarf or red colour element and I perceived the red as an independent if not main personage of my works. Creating body of work is mandatory, and I was so much in tune and in love with my work so I enjoyed doing it. I have a feeling that within these ‘red and monochrome’ paintings for years I was telling a continuous story as if I was writing a book. And even though I still love the red and I am happy and humbled when people recognise my ‘red scarf’ as my signature style, I believe that any story has to come to the logical end one day. Now I feel that I’ve finished that ‘book’ and it’s time for a new story. I dared to change subject, images and colour palette for my current work. I know it is a risk, and I have to create a totally new body of work. Again. And it wasn’t an easy decision to step out of the comfortable zone and start working on something new but I enjoy doing so and I would not like to turn back, I want to evolve. I begin a ‘new book’ with new personages and a new range of inspiring colours. And my precious red is still with me, it is on my palette and I am going to burst it and splash it on new paintings with new heroes. I look forward to share this experience with everybody and with myself and I am curious to see where this route will eventually bring me to. Shall I tell something about the red?...:) The colour, the roar, the beauty, the root… I love powerful energy that is pulsing in the red. There is definitely some kind of mysterious attraction in this colour for humans’ eyes. It is multi-symbolical and contradictive and in different cultures it often has opposite meanings. It associates with passion and love, liberation and revolutionary red flags, but also with danger and blood. At the same time - vitality of our life is in the red colour of blood. The red colour considered for the Root Chakra or Chakra Muladhara in Buddhism, also in Tibetan philosophy the red colour symbolises connection with the Universe. And also, since my childhood, there is a special meaning of the ‘red’ germinated from my Russian roots where ‘red’ quite literally means ‘beautiful’, particularly in Old Russian language and folk’s fairy tales. The Red Square just means ‘Beautiful Square’ not anything else… I tried to accumulate all the meanings of the red in my works, and I think that through this red I was overcoming my inner psychological barriers and boundaries. We’ll see where it leads me in my new works… Describe an obstacle you have faced and how did you overcome it. We all have hard times and obstacles to overcome. We cross paths with people, passing by lots of faces and never see them again; and behind every face and smile is the whole universe, the whole unique world with happiness and tragedy, with hope and despair, as unique as everybody else’s. We live our daily lives and never actually think that everything can be taken away just in a blink of an eye, in one click. I’ve had a crossing point where my life has just crushed in one day and from where I count my life as a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. I was raised up by my Mum and she was my source of love, light, kindness, wisdom, protection…She was my teacher, she seeded in me everything that is good in me. I love reading because she loved it and she was reading for me a lot. From my very childhood I was surrounded by hundreds of books because she worked as a library director and she often took me to the library. I love music and theatre because my Mum was bringing me to the theatre as often as she could. She took me to Music School and thanks to her I was lucky to study there for 7 years and enter the world of classical music. I love painting because my Mum supported and encouraged my interest and attempts. We were very close to each other; we were friends, soul mates. She had a great sense of humour and she was always friendly to people, always smiling and cheerful no matter what. She was killed in a car accident. And when such a tragedy happens so suddenly, you have no chance to prepare yourself for that catastrophic moment, when somebody appears at your entrance door in the morning and tells you – ‘Your Mum has been killed’. And I saw her just a few hours ago in the evening. It’s impossible to describe what you feel at such moment - my whole world has crushed, everything has just stopped. I’d say it was my own private Apocalypse and after that, for the next endless decade my life looked like a snowball that was running down faster and faster. Everything was rapidly swirling into a hopeless black hole, isolation, severe depression and so on. As we say in Russia ‘if grief comes – open the gate’, which sounds similar to the English ‘misfortunes always come in threes’. To my perception there is no recovery from the loss of somebody you loved, there is no any treatment to heal this wound - you just have to learn how to live with it, that’s all. I could not reconcile this loss for so long that it caused some health problems and I suffered a few operations. My despair and particularly my health condition appeared too hard to bear for my ex-husband and my 19 years marriage has ended; and I went through a long and depressive divorce. I had no relatives, no one to rely on, and there were only three of us in my reality - my son, me and my pain. At times the pain was so unbearable that I could not breathe. Meanwhile, I had to work for a living and I tried to just live – with no light. I woke up, got up, walked, worked, looked after my son and did all the home duties. I could not paint, I could not play my piano, I forgot how to smile and was just coping with all the daily routine and circumstances. I learned how to hide all the pain and emotions deep inside and never talked about it. I guess that from a side my life looked quite sustainable, especially from a professional side of view. I run my own business, I worked hard and it forced my mind being occupied for 24 hours a day, but it was like somebody else’s life, I didn’t belong there anymore. Gradually I reached the point where I realised very clearly that I am actually not living my life and I have to do something to bring my life back if I want to feel alive ever again. Somehow I felt that I have to begin a completely new life, from zero, from scratch. I was a middle age woman in my forties and luckily for me, something inside me was fighting for life and longing for happiness. Whether it was an accident or a destiny, I had heard about Central Saint Martins College of Art in London and was impressed with its brilliant alumni such as Peter Doig, Anish Kapoor, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen etc. Studying there appeared inspiring so I started to think about it. Applying for studying at Art College expect having an appropriate artistic portfolio, so I had no choice but start painting again and creating new works. And it was such a healing breath of fresh air! I was recovering with every single brush stroke, with every tube of paint I picked up from the box, with smell of the paints, with every touch of the canvas. In a few months a sufficient amount of new paintings was completed, my portfolio was prepared and I eventually went for the interview. Despite of the fact that my English was close to a zero at that point and an interpreter assisted me during the interview - I was accepted for studies with the proviso that I had to learn English and pass the necessary IELTS exam, so once again I had no choice but start learning this language. Seven months later I passed my exam and was accepted to the University of the Arts London as a Fine Art student of the famous Central Saint Martins College of Arts. I moved to London and my totally new life has begun. Three years later I received my first Art Award at the Mall Galleries during the Society of Women Artists exhibition. The Award was given to me by Lady Gabriela Windsor, daughter of Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent. In two years more I exhibited two of my paintings at Saatchi Gallery in London at ‘red carpet’ event alongside Banksy, Sir Peter Blake, Damian Hirst, Alexa Meade, Terry O’Neil etc… Since then there were many exhibitions and achievements. At one of my exhibitions I have met my husband, my soul-mate, my best friend and biggest supporter and I can finally say that I live my life. It is my life and I am grateful for it.
Nature versus nurture- do you believe you have inherited abilities from creative parents, do you have creative siblings? Can you identify environmental factors or influences which led to your choices or directions?
I appreciate quietness and peaceful harmony in everything and I am trying to transfer this harmony into my paintings. I create in my works my own peaceful reality, my own Universe. I guess that Russian school of drawing and painting has a big influence on me, as well as Russian music and literature. After studying music for years at Music School and then at Music College as a chorus conductor I perceive everything through a musical harmony, whether this is harmony of singing voices, musical compositions, words or colours. I also was very much into rock music and used to sing and play keyboards and piano in rock-bands; I wrote my own music, lyrics and songs, some of them released on a CD. You still can listen to a couple of my songs (recorded in 2004) on Sound Cloud; I am singing and playing piano on those tracks. At the same time I never gave up on painting and drawing so in my twenties I decided to attend Art College as well where I studied part-time for two years and finished it with Distinction Certificate. Since then I have always worked in fields related to art, all of my activities were involved, more or less, in the creative process. For a few years I was working as a window-designer at the biggest shopping centre in my city alongside with a great team of brilliant artists. I can say that it was an extremely creative process, it is very similar to making stage decorations for the theatre or doing art-installations when you have to create from scratch all sort of imaginable 3-D objects and decorative sculptures, figures and mannequins using various and often unusual materials. It is an inspiring and truly creative process that requires not only drawing and painting skills but also brave imagination. Often you must accomplish a certain task at a very limited space so you constantly refining your composition skills and practising attention to details. I learnt a lot from this working experience.
Is there something you regard as essential to your preparation or process?
I always prepare all my canvases myself. I believe it is essential, so I prepare them by my own hands. I construct stretchers bars with hummer and ruler totally myself, paying attention to right angles and corners, then I stretch linen on the frames also myself. Then I seal canvas with multiple layers, and then I prime them. Usually I do it in the evening, so I leave the sealed and primed canvases to dry overnight. When they are ready, I sand them very attentively to make the surface as smooth and even as possible. All these preparations take time but I enjoy doing it myself because it is worth it! It is essential for me because it is a total pleasure to paint on such perfectly prepared linen.
Detail a moment which was the highlight for you, thus far.
I have a few most significant exhibitions that I consider as highlights of my artistic carrier. One of them was in 2010 when I exhibited at Saatchi Gallery in London at ‘Art of Giving’ exhibition as a finalist of National Competition (top 10 in painting category out of 3750 entries) with two of my paintings alongside with celebrity artists Damian Hirst, Banksy, Sir Peter Blake, Jeff Koons, Gavin Turk, Mark Wallinger, Terry O'Neill, Alan Warren, Steve Goddard, Leonardo Drew, Christian Furr, Alexa Meade, Charlotte Dellal and many other stars. Works were selected by a panel of judges that include representatives from the Tate, Frieze, Scream and FAS London. It’s been a truly magnificent ‘red carpet’ event with lots of VIP quests to name a few – Lord Archer, Julian Lennon, Ronnie Wood, Derren Brown, Noel Fielding, Vic Reeves. And as a cherry on the cake both of my works were sold for an astronomical price after the exhibition. It’s been a dream exhibition, absolutely fantastic unforgettable experience. From latest highlights it is ‘Painting Today’ exhibition curated by Didi Menendez, and ‘ModPortrait’ and ‘Loengrin’ art contests at MEAM – European Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona. At the ‘Painting Today’ show I have met so many outstanding women artists in person and had a chance to see their amazing works in flesh, it’s been a privilege to participate. When my painting was selected for exhibition at ModPortrait, one of the most prestigious and honourable portrait competitions, I was so happy that I could not stop jumping around and screaming like a child with happiness. Participation at ‘Loengrin’ exhibition at MEAM could have been another ‘red carpet’ art event but due to quarantine the event has been suspended. Still it is a highlight of this year and I hope so much that MEAM will be opened soon and we can enjoy these amazing events in Barcelona. What do you hope to convey through your work?
I suppose that I can describe my works as imaginative realism where personages placed into my imaginary world and circumstances. My works may emerge dramatic or ironic however there is always a story behind the eyes and faces of my characters and I love to enrol my works with an intellectual riddle and even philosophical content that appealing to curious and peculiar minds.
When I work on portraits, I become almost obsessed with images I am working on. I convey my soul into my works, and I am trying to involve viewers of my works emotionally and intellectually. I communicate with viewers by inviting them to experience all the hidden emotions and deep inner feelings that I reveal in my personages and I hope to evoke viewers’ emotional response.
I am trying to capture and express on canvas a pure essence of a human’s soul, a pure human’s spirit and what can be more challenging and inspiring for an artist? Isn’t it fascinating and challenging – to find some universal subjects that can be related to any human beings? I believe that emotions and feelings can be considered as Universal language. Deep emotions do not depend on any boundaries, such as countries, languages, mentalities, religions, races etc. I’m trying to convey to my works this Universal language that can be understood and adopted by everybody.
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