Art, artists and more artists

Chapter I: In which Nina goes over the wall

My best (and only) friend – I think it’s time to introduce her, from now on I’ll refer to her as Nina – attends an art school. I’m not very well-read in painting. My knowledge of it basically consists of three things:

1. 1)   You need a brush
2. 2)   Paints are mixed on the palette
3. 3)   Van Gogh cut off his ear

But I like to watch Nina at work and unlike me she doesn’t mind onlookers. Nina is crazy about contemporary art. She turned her room into a wacky studio filled with all sorts of painting supplies, self-made motivating posters and bizarre stuff of unknown purpose. Each time I come in I feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. You can never tell what you’ll see next in this Wonderland. Last week I found her splashing paint onto the walls right with her hands. She called that ‘a creative experiment’ and seemed to be pretty proud of herself. Her mother didn’t join the celebration, though. She made her wash the walls and paint them all over again – in a regular way. But that didn’t discourage Nina from creative experiments.

Chapter II: In which we meet Mr. Afremov

Today she was all about palette knife painting. She showed me some sort of a cake shovel and said it’s used instead of a brush. I can’t really imagine it, but the ways of contemporary artists are inscrutable. Nina says she picked the idea from Jewish painter Leonid Afremov. He runs a gallery on the web where everyone can view and buy his artwork. Before I could answer, I was on Nina’s laptop, browsing the site under her watchful eye. Even from the depth of my ignorance, I could immediately tell why Nina called this man ‘one of the grooviest contemporary artists.’

Paintings by Mr. Afremov are simply incredible and incredibly simple. He doesn’t try to impress you with cryptic images or shocking tricks. His art is a quiet, down-to-earth world of night streets, rainy parks, kissing couples. Things we all love and share. And the way he paints makes them even lovelier. I was mesmerized by this kaleidoscope of bright colors and swirling lights.  It seemed like I plunged into a rainbow. There is so much color and energy in Mr. Afremov’s works that they literally flow from the canvas right into you filling you with pure joy. And you just can’t help liking them. I shared my impressions with Nina and she said there is hope for me yet.

Chapter III: In which everyone gets creative

Our world is full of creative people. This very moment, thousands of contemporary artists, painters and sculptors are sweating over their easels in an effort to create another Black Square. My friend Nina is probably plotting something mind-boggling within her four stripped walls. And I’m writing about it in my blog. What I want to say is that there is always some place for art in our life, be it a painting by Leonid Afremov or silly stuff you scribble in your notebook. You just have to find your inner artist and let him drive. You won’t believe where he can take you!