We were lucky to catch up with Tatyana Grechina recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tatyana, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
The most important part of keeping creativity alive for me is to always return to the place of play. No matter how serious your work gets, how much pressure you or your art are under, if you can remind yourself that you chose this path, it becomes a whole lot more light.
I frequently work with this energy — as a full time writer and artist, “creativity” can often feel interchangeable with “productivity.” I begin to squash the two together and grind until I feel completely emotionally depleted and disconnected from my work and purpose. Those are the moments I need intentional connection the most — connection with myself, my work and the outside world. Taking a break from the work, going on a walk, calling or seeing a friend, playing with my dog — all of these things allow my brain to reset and most importantly, allow my curiosity to reset.
It’s in those moments that we take the pressure off of our cerebral minds, the beads of creativity and Art find the space to seep in and get to work beneathe the surface. I believe it’s that constant balance of work and rest that ultimately keep the creativity alive or me. It’s not really something that ever goes away, but we do need to actively work on keeping the channel clear.
One of my favorite things to do when it comes to play – since that can be a pretty broad term – is engage in specific games around rules or restrictions in an art-making process. For example, I’ll have a pile of paper scraps that I dyed, and will drop them on a panel, tape them down and paint from that composition — like Andre Masson, one of the pioneers of Surrealism. Or I’ll have a pile of those scraps and start sewing them together, grabbing new peices as I go without looking. In the end, the completed work is both part me and part Chance. To me, letting myself depart from any expectations or standards of art and beauty, creates that sense of Play. It’s just for fun — nothing more.
Especially when art becomes your job, the ability to allow your business and academic brain to relax. and simply enjoy the experience like you did as a child, becomes paramount.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Coming from a background in fine art and oil painting, my art reflects an amalgamation of the many external interests that have found their way into my practice — turning it into a collective, multimedia and often collaborative space.
For the past ten years, my focus has largely been on people — sharing their story, seeing past the exterior to their spirits, and the beautiful way in which all of our strengths can shine when we work together. I do this through creative direction of photoshoots, styling, modeling and occasionally shooting the work. For every set that I create or orchestrate, I print all the photos and create analogue, x-acto cut collages. These come to life much in the same way as the spirit of play for me — with an element of chance. I go quickly in the collaging, I don’t overthink, and more often than not it becomes more of a physical, intuitive act than a cerebral one — based in making quick decisions, grouping, cutting and taping before the mind has time to step in and protest.
This practice has evolved into a creative direction and styling collaborative I co-started with a fellow artist and friend, Alex Black — Camp Sublime. Through Camp Sublime, we orchestrated over 25 shoots across three states, from NYC to SC to CO, to culminate in a printed and published Camp Tarot Deck. Every card in the tarot deck, which we hope will be available to purchase by 2025, is modeled by an artist or individual who have both guided and inspired our journeys, making the deck a fusion of energies, talent and vision much larger than ourselves.
I’m so, SO excited to get to spotlight all of these talented individuals, and create something that will reach more people than my paintings alone can. The element of spirituality and healing has always been crucial to my work, as art feels like a place in between realms, but honing the ability to command it through play and intention has been transformative.
As an artist, I do many things and for a long time felt like I wasn’t enough because I didn’t specialize. Now, I see how everything has come together and will continue to — for everybody. Every aspect of your lives has meaning and purpose, it can sometimes take a decade to put it all together.
Stay tuned for more new on the upcoming Camp Tarot Deck and follow @camp.sublime on Instagram to support the makers! We’ll be launching a Kickstarter to roll out production, so this will be the next big step in our (and my!) professional journey. I’ve been a professional writer and editor for over five years now, but the world of Kickstarter and self-promotion in this way is new to me, so I’m trying to navigate is as a new art to learn!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Try everything! I used to think that was a downfall of mine, and that I wasn’t a big, famous painter yet because I loved fibers, loved making costumes, loved play and performance, loved collage. However, all of those things only enhanced my studio health and made my art more vibrant as I found my voice and deepend my understanding of myself through all those other things. I’d call this curiosity and openness — approaching the world with a curious, open heart will lead you to things you may have never otherwise tried, and those could have a great impact on your art AND life.
Second, I feel like moving between 2D and 3D with the practice of staging photoshoots and sets has improved my overall sense of composition. Learning to see things in a holistic perspecitve has lead to a richer practice in my 2D world. For example, the way shifting the model’s body in certain way or adding an orange glove, a red soda can, or pile of vegetables can create a completely different image and world. This often boarders on film and set design for me and has allowed me to draw connections between these areas of art and traditional painting that I’d have never noticed, had I not begun engaging in new practices. This has greatly impacted my art, including the collaged images I create.
For me, a third hugely impactful are of knowledge in my journey has actually been the physical aspect of Jiu Jitsu! I’d have never thought this would be such — I didn’t grow up athletic or playing sports — but the ability to get out of your head and into your body, moving and flowing with others in a controlled environment, has both added confidence and strength behind my message. Before this period, my work was largely about exploring the shadow, showing the world my ugly side (through raw, semi-dark paintings) and talking about how both beasts exist within our beings. I feel like through exercising my insecurities with martial arts, I’ve been able to move through these discussions and onto something greater than myself — moving from a place of strength and not so much exploring my own psyche in my art, but moving from a space of “what can I add to the collective?”
For anyone out there early on in their journeys, just don’t stop. Keep showing up every day, keep playing, keep growing your abilities and experiences. Try everything! Never stop being curious. And most importantly don’t compare yourself with anyone. We have no idea what they’re dealing with. I have some really successful artist friends who have struggled immensely in their personal lives and fought tooth and nail for their professional success. We truly only see the highlight reels. I believe there’s room enough for everyone because Art had enough room for us, when it came to the rescue as kids, teens or adults. Knowing this, it’ll always be available for us to melt into, form and share with others.
How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?
Like many traditional fine artists learning how to exist in a multi-media world, my biggest challenge has always revolved around presentation in the digital space. I consider myself a very old-school, analog artist, always having preferred brushes, cutting boards and blades to digital tools. However, I recognize that making art and showing it have always been two different things. In the past, artists would have dealers or gallerists — someone to market their work, curate it and show it. Today, many do it all themselves.
I’m constantly amazed by how fantastic some artists are at showing their analogue processes in a digital way, recording videos and making reels of their studio time and work. This requires stepping into a completely different mental space of the art practice, and going from that space of experiment and play to presentation can feel jarring, if not impossible.
I say this candidly, and I know it’s a common point of struggle, but I do recognize my own mental blocks and limitations around it. I know it’s possible; I see it every day. I also see the play and experimentation that goes into the area of presentation — through making videos, creating an online persona, and speaking to the audience as the “artist” version of yourself. (Not just the Oz behind the curtains of your art.) I’m working through this block by trying to take emotion out of it — I pretend to by my own secretary, I organize my work files, I clean up hard drives, I pull images to apply to shows with, I publish posts on Instagram and I try to make the administrative aspect of the art practice as fun as possible. I also frequently remind myself that this is a choice, and I’m choosing it.
Contact Info:
- Email: tatyfairyart@gmail.com
- Website: tatyfairy.com
- Instagram: @tatyfairy
- Other: @camp.sublime (other instagram)
Image Credits
Jeff Goldberg Nick Centore Lauren Nakamura Marina Nikolaeva, Trent Moriarty
