JINR Cultural Centre "Mir"

Every new job is a journey to results

On 6 July, in the exhibition hall of the Cultural Centre "Mir", a meeting was held with the artist, author of the exhibition "Ringing... It doesn't disappear" Sergey Borisovich Mikryukov (on photo).

The audience learned about the nuances of technology, talked about the artist's unusual creative path, the secrets of creating artworks and much more.

Sergey Borisovich is an unusual artist. He found his own artistic language - an amazing fusion of wood, carving and painting. The warm color and texture of wood shines through the complex coloring of his images. In his painting, Sergey Borisovich uses all available materials and tools. The main technique is to work "with your hand", without a compass or a ruler. The carving should be painted, signed and tinted. Each painting is imbued with deep meaning and unique ideas of the artist. This exhibition becomes a real source of inspiration and creative ideas for visitors. We talked with the author about those facets of creativity that you don't always think about when coming into contact with works of art.

Sergey Borisovich, the first thing we see on the poster is the name. Explain, please, how it reflects your paintings?

- It seems to me that it is quite obvious, we all remember (and often experience in memories) something personally significant and important. It could be an event, an emotion, a meeting, a book read, a first kiss... Likewise, in the paintings presented at the exhibition there is my return to the past. And if you keep in mind that I am a young (in quotes) artist, then I have something to remember and experience again. I can imagine how, in thirty years, my profession will have to painfully run for inspiration... In the meantime, this year, I celebrate the fifth anniversary of exhibition activity. Twenty-five exhibitions, group and personal, are pleasing.

Wood carving and painting are a unique combination. How does the image of the future creation arise?

- The image of future painting is not a controllable thing. Everything is like Akhmatova's: "If only you knew from what rubbish poetry grows..." The idea-image comes from wherever it wants. Then everything turns into the translation of limitations into possibilities and discoveries: material (wrong size, cracks, knots), a tool (I would like it, but I have not got it), the presence or absence of some kind of paint or varnish that is needed now - everything is boiled in the cauldron of work. If you have written poetry, you will understand that until all the lines are written, there is no food or drink...

This is true! But the paints are superimposed on the color of the wood and a special alloy of shades is born. Can it be predicted in advance?

- It is impossible to predict anything. And it's not necessary. Each new painting is a push, an impulse, a journey towards a result that is unknown to anyone, neither me nor the board. At the very beginning, there is just a board in front of you, you still need to make friends with it. Of course, you already have experience, the hand already does a lot as if on its own, sometimes you don't even look, but catch a new premonition of the future color, texture, tone density or compositional tension. But until the very end, until the last layer of varnish, the mystery remains. And only the next day, when the varnish has dried, you will see: this is the color. It happens that everything turned out wrong. Attempts to correct the painting, as a rule, are empty and this sometimes takes months of rework. I would throw it away, but the toad is pressing. The most important and powerful paintings for me were always completed in a few days, without pauses, without any regard for their relevance or beauty. Now, when I look at my "classics", I know for sure that it is impossible to repeat them; I don't know how they turned out like that.

Finding your own language for creating means recognizing a special gift in yourself. Do you remember the moment of recognition?

- I can't say anything about the gift. I don't know. My work began with a purely practical need: to make something out of wood for my village house and decorate what I made. I trained like that for about ten years. Frames, benches, furniture, door frames - a lot of things, until my hand began to feel both the material and the tool. At first, as a city dweller, I was afraid of both chisels and a router, wondering every time what the end result would be. And they bit and stung me: the board - endless splinters, as soon as I took a chisel in my hand - immediately a cut. It took me a long time, not right away, to realize that I had not been thinking about the tool for a long time, but thinking about the task and dreaming about the result. Perhaps that was when this combination of materials and technologies happened. A new painting came. My neorealism - that's what I call this style.

Your paintings are literally tangible, in them you can feel the movement of thoughts, feelings and invested forces. What do your paintings communicate to the audience?

- The audience will decide. I don't want and don't hope to teach them wisdom. The question of the meaning and purpose of art has been discussed a million times. This is not interesting to me, if only because I am 67 years old. It's interesting, it's important to work, to think, to feel!..

Finding the answer to the question "what is the painting about" is sometimes difficult. How to go through the creative path from idea to implementation? How long does this route usually take you?

- Time is a subjective thing. Sometimes it seems that nothing has passed, but in fact you have been running around for two or three weeks with some vague desire, inventing some kind of story, but everything is not the same. Then suddenly a frame-shot, a song, a state of nature opens a gate-flow and you are already free, forgetting about all previous thinking, take the board in your hands and cannot help but work. After all, once you start cutting, you can't return what you cut off. Perhaps this includes overcoming internal embarrassment and cowardice in front of a clean and living tree. By giving it form and new meaning, you change it forever.

If you think about the main idea of creativity, what is it for you? What message do you leave for the world?

- I have never thought about such lofty matters. I am skeptical that the world will suddenly vibrate towards us - why should it, already overloaded with the endless cultural heritage of humanity? Like Basho: "An old pond. A frog jumped into the water. A splash in silence". Painting is like throwing a small grain of sand into the pond of the world. There will probably be circles. Where and what might happen next is none of my business...

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The exhibition "Ringing... It doesn't disappear" is open at the JINR Cultural Centre "Mir" until 14 July from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM daily, except Mondays.

Eleonora YAMALEEVA,
Member of the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation,
photo by Elena TROYAN