 Portfolio of
Tatiana Roulin
Norwood, MA
United States
Media Type(s):
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Oils & Acrylics
Watercolors
Mixed Media
Photography
Graphic Arts
Digital
Drawing
Printmaking
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e-Mail Artist
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View Artist Statement
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Gallery Direct Interview with TATIANA ROULIN
Tatiana Kuznetsova’s work is magical and reaches to the soul, showing the glory and value of life in the world around us. She is like a wizard using her magical wand to open portals into other worlds using complicated combinations of several artistic techniques to produce the final image.
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When did you realize you wanted to become an artist and was there anyone who influenced you in your decision?
I will start my answer with a funny story, which happened in 2000, when I had already started studying art in a College. One day in Moscow three women were sitting at the round dining table, drinking tea and talking about life, like women of the world. It was a rencontre, which gathered all these women in one place at the same time. One was my mother, another was my very close friend and last was your humble storyteller. I shall omit all our names because it will bring only confusion in our heads, but I cannot help myself and I will tell you. All of us have the same name, Tatiana.
Upon the anvil, my friend suddenly asked my mother one question, which was very far from the main line of our conversation. The question was sounded like this: “Could you recall in your memory, what was the favourite toy of your daughter in her childhood?” My mother, who was talking before that moment stopped herself and took a very long pause; while she kept her silence she replied under her breath one phrase: “I need to think about it seriously…” Time was passing by and we were waiting for her answer. Finally, my mother said, “Honestly, I could not recall any toy or game. Perhaps it sounds strange but my daughter had quite a few toys but nothing could catch her attention enough to become her favourite. I know only one thing, which she always loved to do. This thing is drawing. She could spend hours drawing or painting her own fairy tales or other fantasies, that’s all that I can recall in my memory now my friends.”
I know I am not original person in this answer because thousands of biographies of Artists start from stories like this. I would rather agree with my mom regarding my favorite toy. However, I can tell you more. When I was a little girl, I had a small dog. It was a first very close friend to me and I perceived my dog as a friend not like a toy. My first shock was when I lost my dog. She died because she had an incurable illness. So my childhood memory was started from loss, understanding of death, sorrow and grief. All these things as a rule make any child older, wiser, and more sensitive.
Answering your question, I realized that I wanted to be a real Artist when I had already had my own family. Before that moment, I had a life full of mixed up events and a lot of changes. I arrived at this decision through my life experience and my desire. In my opinion, to be an Artist one must be a full jug and not empty. Being an artist means that you have something inside, and you really want to say many things through the canvas and colors. As to other kinds of influences, I think that the main force that is always pushing us unto our decisions is life.
What formal or informal educations have you found most beneficial during your career as an artist?
Art is my second profession after being a programmer. At first, I graduated from Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (summa cum laude) with a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics. After working for several years as a computer programmer and Web developer, I decided to pursue my childhood dream – to study art and to challenge myself in fine art and design. I took courses in oil painting from a well-known Russian artist Yuri Gusev and successfully completed a course of study in art at Moscow Pedagogical College. In fact, I am qualified to teach art to children as well.
During my art education and after completing it, I worked as a graphic designer, creating advertising and promotional materials, designing Web sites and producing other sorts of graphics. I also created a number of paintings, mostly in oil, and participated in several art exhibitions in Moscow.
Since moving to the United States, I work as a freelance artist, designer and illustrator. I created over one hundred artworks both in classic and digital art. My works have been exhibited in the USA, Austria, Brazil and Spain; I have won awards and diplomas in a number of national and international art competitions. Many artworks are in private collections in the United States, Canada and Europe.
What kinds of images did you first start out with and what medium did you use? What is your medium of choice now?
During my formal art education, my first images were done mostly by pencil according to academic and classical standard of formal classical art education. I have done hundreds of pencil works going over perspective and composition, lines and dots, proportions of objects and human body. After that, I did a number of works only by oil. It was my favorite medium. I also made several copies, by oil, of paintings that were created by famous artists.
My mediums are varying. I tried different mediums because of my endless curiosity to know more and to be able to create more. Sometimes a medium enforces a style of your art. For example, black ink gives you a limitation of palette. Images created only by ink are always black and white. In this case I consider only black ink because long ago we had a classical variant of ink that was black. Instead of black ink, I could explore with just a pencil. Nowadays my medium consists of sets of pencils, charcoals and inks. These mediums let me create a graphic artwork, which is not easy because they are very complicated and take a lot of time but in the end they provide an interesting result.
How did you arrive at your style and is there any symbolic meaning in your work?
Now I work in two directions: digital painting and classical painting. These two styles of painting are different as to mediums and also stylistically.
In regards to digital painting, I cannot honestly say that I found my ultimate style because I know that I am changing and my style is changing together with me like nature. I do not feel that I am able to do all my digital artworks only in one style forever. I created several digital series in various styles, for example, my Amber Series or Black and White Series. Therefore, I am not going to confine myself only to these opened styles. I would like to continue my creative research and finally I wish to find something new to create. The same words I can say regarding classical painting.
How did I arrive at my styles? I think it is quite simple to answer because I arrived at my styles through reading. I am keen on reading a lot of myths, legends, fairy tales and fantasy stories. I get my inspiration and ideas in books. My dream is to have a huge old-fashioned library somewhere in my own castle.
If we consider my Amber Series then it was quintessence, which contains my favorite artists and legends. I have a lot of symbolism in my works because they were based on legends, which have a lot of symbols and meanings. Most of my digital artworks are multi layered.
Once one man from Tokyo spoke about my digital artworks and said, "Strange, your images have a healing power. It’s some sort of calming effect for ones mind. It comes from the strange mixture of many elements I guess. I am not sure but I can see something like a symbolism, which is being seen in such works like Dante's Divina Commedia: symbols of holy things, light, ways, oblivion, maze...Great!" His words are saying about symbolism in my works better than any words of my own. I can only add that in every my work I always try to embody immortal things such as love, hope, belief, honor, generosity, purity, understanding and faith.
I like it when people see in my artworks meanings and symbols that I didn’t think of when creating the work, not knowingly at least. Here is another comment from a viewer that made me sit back and think. “Tatiana Kuznetsova - Thank you Phyllis, this woman's pictures are so beautiful, so dream like. This Russian painter is my favorite... I loved "Old Tree" and I wonder what the significance of the doors/gates mean to her. I noticed them in several pictures. Peace, Laura” I didn’t put any special importance in a gate on that artwork; I just felt that the element must be there. After thinking about it, I understood that the doors/gates are symbolizing the choices we make in our lives and different paths we can always take.
What experiences have most influenced your choice of subject matter?
I can answer very firmly and clearly that throughout all my life it was life itself. Exactly under the influence of life, I reshaped my artistic vision, owing to which I have an opportunity to create artworks that you can see nowadays. My life was very far from a quiet and placid river. I managed to come through a grand bundle of losses, disillusions, betrayals, incomprehension, lies and injustices. All these things left a deep mark in my soul, in my heart and in my artistic vision. Nevertheless, not only these things of my life gave me my current choice of subject matter in my art. I traveled a lot to accomplish my vision and finally find stark naked sense of our life and my own destiny. Different parts of Russia and Europe were being rolled by in front of my eyes thus this quintessence of life could not leave me without deep memories. Since I live in USA, I am trying to embody my vision of life through art and I will never stop appealing to people’s feelings and people’s hearts. Finally, I think that fire within a real artist is burning away everything extraneous that can divert from search for the true meaning of life.
Do you have a sketch or an idea before you begin to work on a piece?
Telling the truth, this is the most frequent question that people ask me. Nowadays I never suspend myself on the drafts phase. Making sketches and drafts is rara avis for me. Recently a man wrote to me and commented with a question inside “You create outstanding works... If you do not mind me asking, how do you come up with your ideas? Is it a sort of random manner, which is how I kind of work, or do you plan it all out before creating your masterpieces?” As a rule, I always get a whole picture in my head, and only after that stage do I begin to work on it. Pictures come to me as visions or dreams and make an enduring imprint in my memory so that the only way to get them off my mind is to put them on paper, canvas or to a digital file. I am able to work on them as long as I am physically able and the vision rarely fades away. I only look into my imprint and compare it with what I already did and how close this variant is to my inside vision.
Is there any way in which you produce your art that you feel is unique or unusual?
I think that every human is unique and whatever he is doing is equally unique. Our deeds reflect what each of us has inside our inner world. If we are considering a sphere of artists that means that every artist is unrepeatable as well as the ways in which artists produce their art. I think every artist has details, which make his art original and unusual. These details depend on life experiences of each artist. Each life is unique and unusual. To me, my life was always like a blusterous river full of surprises, losses and findings, so my works are reflecting my own life and my own experience.
How do you keep yourself motivated?
While I was thinking about this question, I have recalled a quotation about Art by Andre Malraux “Art is a revolt against fate.” Motivation as a term of psychology means to have the encouragement to do something. In my case, to do something in art, so from this point of view I have some answers.
I often feel a need to create art. Creating an art for me is as much necessary as air. For me this feeling stays in a line with our physical needs such us breathing, sleeping and eating. I undergo a need to speak with the world around me through my art so I usually sit down and start to work.
I closely watch the new works of my fellow artists and often refer to works of the great artists of the past. This reminds me that my works can still get better, that there is a need to grow professionally. I have a large collection of art books. I am especially fond of Romantic artists. Their art always gives me inspiration and evokes positive mood for new works.
Summing up all I have said above, I consider that motivation for me is a revolt against myself.
As an artist, do you think you perceive the world differently from other people?
This is very peculiar question. As I have told you before, every human is unique and each perception is unique as well. The question is how much difference there is between our perceptions.
Preamble: I have never thought the way that I am to be more unique than others. However, people around me were always telling me that I am a talented and gifted person, so as it were I must continue my way in art. I think people, who have known me very well and are very close were able to answer this question much better than me but some of them are passed away, and some of them are too far away from me, so I will try to write about my perception using thoughts and words, which have been said about me by people.
Vision of my art master: It was a regular lesson. There were five students and all of us were doing the same. We were painting a real Still Life by oil from other points of view. When each of us completed our works, our teacher aligned our artworks and started his observation of our efforts. Later he said to all of us that we did a good job and he spoke with each student personally about mistakes in composition, color decision and perspective. Soon he approached me and looked at me shrewdly and said nothing about my mistakes (but I was assured that I had made a lot of them). He only asked, “You know who you are?” I answered, “I am your student”. Art master said, “You are not my student anymore you are a lighthouse now”. Years later when I had already crossed an Atlantic ocean I had a phone conversation with my art teacher and he told me that every student still remembered me as a bright person and all of them want to be like me to achieve as much as I could. He also added, “Always remember you are a lighthouse to show people a right way”
Do you create your work with a specific group of people in mind and are you concerned if they see your work differently from the way you intended?
I do not address my works to some particular group of people. It is impossible to please everyone of course, and I do not have such an intention. My artwork is determined and outlined by my vision and inner sensation and my mood. It is about feelings and experiences and I put into it what I feel and think at the moment. Anyone who is open enough and willing to see can perceive the message.
Sometimes people are finding in my artworks meanings that I never thought of. I am not concerned when this happens. Quite the opposite, I am rather glad because it gives me new ideas about what people see and how they think.
During your career, who or what has given you the most inspiration?
For me inspiration means a sensation of inner soaring. Without this sensation, I cannot create my art. This is an emotional state when you cannot feel your physical body but only your feelings and mind. It is hard to explain because this is a condition of spirit and it is a very special modus visu. Inner soaring is my modus vivendi in art.
The best source of inspiration for me is recognition and approval from people who are viewing my artworks. Their emotional reaction and the depth of impression my art gives them. I am a worldly person, not a spiritual being and while I create my works because I simply cannot deny them, I do not make them for myself. They are for other people to enjoy. Positive response from spectators makes me feel that my art is fulfilling its purpose. It makes me proud of what I am doing, gives me strength to overcome difficulties in my work and urges me to keep moving. Sometimes it surprises me and gives me something to think of.
For example, from time to time, my friends here send me links to sites where my name is mentioned. After exploration of some of them, I have discovered very extraordinary juxtaposition of my art and Salvador Dali as is evident in the quote below. “These are my two favorite artists: Salvador Dali and Tatiana Kuznetsova. I just think they are both incredibly wonderful, so talented. Phil”
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