"Omsk Here" continues to acquaint its readers with young and promising residents of the city in the "20x20" project. Our today's heroes Alisa Kusakina and Ivan Noskov are classmates, talented young artists with a different approach to art and life. Alisa Kusakina, 5th year student of the Faculty of Arts, Omsk State Pedagogical University. - How and when did you decide that you want to be creative? - I have always had a craving for painting and applied arts. In fact, art has always been with me. From the age of three, my parents began to take me to various circles and sections. I liked to look at something, observe different processes and, through the prism of my perception, transform what I saw into picturesque, graphic images. I can’t do anything except art and don’t want to be able to. - In what direction do you like to work more now? - I belong more to graphics, I like to study techniques, various branches of printed graphics. For example, this year I rediscovered cardboard engraving for myself. - Is it easy for a young artist to realize himself in Omsk? - My undertakings are supported by the culture and structure of Omsk. We have a wonderful museum "Liberov Center", where exhibition projects take place. We are also supported by the Museum "Art of Omsk" and "House of the Artist". You can come to these sites, demonstrate your capabilities, see what other artists are capable of. There is a synthesis, communication between young and established artists. I feel that this is very good for my creativity. - How can a young artist declare himself today, make himself noticed? - I believe that the most important thing for a young artist is to work hard, to pay no attention to the little things, to look more extensively, to soberly assess his role. Only through the search for yourself and your language can you achieve something. And then everything will work out, there will be exhibitions and so on. There are many contests on the Internet that can help in development, in promotion. The main thing is to constantly work on yourself, improve, not stand still and not be isolated, but be open. - Do I need to learn to draw or is it enough to have an innate talent? - I believe that education is necessary. Judging from my experience, I can see the difference between what I came to the faculty and what I will soon leave. It is necessary, of course, to feel intuitively, but also to support everything with logic. I analyzed the works of those who began their career in painting without academic knowledge, and then studied the literacy of drawing, composition, and so on, and saw what they were then transformed into. - Do I need to learn to understand art? - Not always in creativity, it doesn't matter if it is painting, graphics, sculpture or something else, the artist has some kind of meaning. It is not necessary to look for an answer to the question "what did the author mean?" This is some kind of post-Soviet thinking, and it is very erroneous. The author may not include anything sacred in the work at all. - Do you often go to exhibitions, look at the work of other artists? - In order to become an artist in the future, although one may not become an artist, it is necessary to watch a lot. I try to watch different exhibitions that are taking place, even those that are far from my vision. A work becomes alive, gains significance and is filled with meanings when you showed it to someone, and that someone appreciated it. It doesn't matter what emotion the viewer experienced: negative or positive, the main thing is that this emotion was. - When you create your new work, do you think about how the viewer will perceive it? - No, when I create a work, it is as if I fall into a trance. When I’m in the creative process, I don’t have an idea of what might be thought of her. The main thing is that the idea itself touches me. Approval, recognition comes later, the main thing is the process itself. Art for art's sake. - You are already in your fifth year of university, what do you plan to do after graduation? - Life is short, art is eternal. I don't want the plastic world to win. I would like to be engaged in creativity, art, to embody my vision. This is valuable! It is important that everyone understands that it is their view of the world that is important. We are distinguished from animals not by reason and physical capabilities, but by creativity. Ivan Noskov, 5th year student of the Faculty of Arts, Omsk State Pedagogical University. - How did your career in art begin? - I was born in the super-small village of Topolnoye, Altai Territory. I had an ordinary village childhood: I helped my parents in the garden, fiddled with cattle. My dad is a woodcarver, he was once taught by his father, my grandfather. He gave a chisel, a piece of wood, a picture of a heron in his hands and said: "Hold it, try it." In the end, he was so hooked that he is still doing it. So my father gave me a pencil and said: "Draw, there is a dog lying." As a result, I began to draw everything I saw. Then my parents divorced, we moved to a larger village, where I already went to an art school. - Where do you find ideas for new paintings, sketches? - I have always been fond of history, now I am studying the era of Napoleon's reign, his reforms, and so on. I'll tell you a secret that I recently started a new painting. It will be a big work, where Napoleon stands in tears against the background of officials. I am more inclined to such genre, plot pictures that suggest some kind of thought. - How do you define for yourself what it means to be an artist? - I do art because that's what annoys me least of all. I often think about what I would be doing if I didn’t have to earn money, but I still haven’t found the answer. Many famous artists disliked being discussed. Picasso, for example, said that artists should talk about where to buy good paints. This position is close to me. I tried to work in this area, I created graphics for computer games. Somehow it dawned on me that it's one thing to paint to order, and another thing to create for yourself. - Do you often communicate with other artists outside the university? - It was always difficult for me to join the team: in kindergarten, at school, at the university. When I paint on the street and they come to me with the question: "Oh, are you an artist?", I am often silent, because I do not know what to answer. Probably, I am on my own and will stay until the last. Somehow I'm uncomfortable with everyone. - How do you perceive criticism of your work? - The most important thing is that the criticism is constructive. I had a story in my first year, we had to cast an eagle from plaster. Before that, I had not done anything like that at all, I came from the village. I brought my job to a sculpture teacher, and he said: "What kind of chicken is this, why did you come up to me with it at all." I wanted to get some kind of objective assessment, for example, that my eagle has short claws or that the beak is not bent enough. Naturally, I won't go to such a teacher for advice anymore. - And if we are talking not about educational, but about creative work? - If a person creates his work the way he intended, then even inaccuracies in it are unimportant. We will not discuss, for example, the pencil technique in our creative work. Only the "like" and "dislike" categories are important here. In general, I think that if the viewer is hooked on something in the work, then it is necessary to tell the author about it, and if something is not pleasant, then it is better to remain silent. Criticism is appropriate when asked. - What do you plan to do after graduation? - I want to work for society, but I don’t know exactly how. People are the only animals that have the opportunity to study something, fly into space. If there was an opportunity to reject the mundane and imagine that we are all working for one global goal, then humanity would achieve a lot. Photos from the personal archives of the heroes of the publication
