Memory of the kind

Talent by Inheritance  

Kristina Smelova was born and grew up in Belaya Tserkov, a city not far from Kiev. The first lessons of fine art she was taught by her mother, Ksenia Mihailovna Smelova, who drew well and strongly encouraged her daughter in this passion.

Mother graduated from the Leningrad Art College named after Vladimir Serov with a specialty ‘Painter of alfresco-paintings’. By the way, it was in Leningrad where my parents met. They studied in the same course and got married. However, they divorced before my birth, so I never knew my father...

Returning to Belaya Tserkov, my mother worked for some time as an artist-designer, but then she married a second time, my brother was born, and mother dived into the family routine...

Kristina started to draw in the nursery school. The little girl was fond of this occupation; it often replaced usual children’s games.  

«The earliest drawings I remember are the Aurora cruiser and the storks. Over time, my ships and storks were getting better. And Oleg Bezverbny, the artist from my native Belaya Tserkov, taught me to size the canvas. He and my mother worked together and were well acquainted. When I was little, my mother and I often came to his studio. We used to talk...»              

Although Kristina is convinced that her artist father had no impact on her, since he did not take part in the education of his daughter, it is hardly possible to agree with. After all, as Mikhail Bulgakov asserted ‘Blood issues are the most difficult questions in the world’. And who but mother and father could bequeath an extraordinary artistic gift to their daughter. And the course of time brought the skill.

Path of Discipleship

Since Kristina was very fond of drawing (moreover, she felt some physical necessity in this), she, in addition to the comprehensive school, attended classes at the children’s art school and then at the Academic Art School founded by Alexander Dmitrenko8.

However, it is worth noting that even after receiving a pre-professional art education, the girl did not have a clear idea of what she would be in adulthood. Although her nearest and dearest supported her desire for arts, they perceived this more as a hobby and did not imagine Kristina being a free artist. Her grandmother even wanted the granddaughter to become the dentist. Her mother advised her to enter the pedagogical school and get the profession of the art teacher.

«When I came to apply, I didn’t like the pedagogical school, and I immediately realized that I didn’t want to study there and wouldn’t do it. But what should I enter then? I drew attention to the chair of drawing and painting of the architectural faculty of Kiev Engineering Construction Institute (KECI)».

The disappointment came quickly. I don’t want to say something bad about teachers or the education system. Rather it was me who didn’t understand where I was going to enter. It turned out that they taught not art at the building university (two classes a week don’t count), but mostly adjacent disciplines, such as the basics of architecture, design, etc.

«Having realized her mistake, after two years of study the girl decided to quit this institution and enter another one. It may seem strange, but she still hesitated, choosing between the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pedagogical University and the Art Academy».

At that time, I’d read a large number of books, thought a lot and was seriously interested in philosophy. However, the Academy of Arts won.

In 2004, Kristina enrolled in the faculty of fine arts, and when it was time to determine with specialization, she chose the chair of monumental and easel painting. At that moment, Smelova already knew for sure: her vocation was neither graphics nor sculpture, but namely painting.

Alongside with KECI, I was studying in the studio of Viktor Shulga. When I came to him for the first time with watercolor (we didn’t use oil at the institute at all), he looked at me like I was crazy. And then ... I remember that at one of the classes Viktor Yurievich taught how to enter the color. While I was drawing abstractions (that was quite boring), my teacher was carrying out an order; he was painting oil landscape: a river, stones, a waterfall, and a small forest. The teacher went out somewhere, and I wanted to copy his painting, only to do it in my own way. He returned, saw my work and looked at me completely differently. Probably, he realized that it made sense to deal with me further. There would be something good of me.

In the Kiev period, it was Viktor Shulga who was the first teacher of Kristina Smelova; and she still values his opinion, although she has not seen her mentor for a long time. But Smelova got a real professional education at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, where her teachers were such famous Ukrainian artists as Michail Guida, Oleg Yasenev, and others. Vasily Ivanovich Gurin taught in the parallel studio.

«The similarity with the work of Gurin is noticed in my paintings even now, although, frankly speaking, I don’t share this opinion, and for five years of studying I saw Vasily Ivanovich only about twenty times, no more. But often it happens that other people’s works inspire. I really liked Gurin’s paintings, and also my first teacher Viktor Shulga used to be his student.

Anyway, the academy gave me a lot. Of course, you can become a good artist even without the appropriate education, but after obtaining the system knowledge it is much easier to make it. You spend a certain amount of time among people who already know how to do it. You learn. This can be compared with the teaching a first-grader writing. By and large, a child can learn to write independently, but this will require considerably more time».

Back to Nature

After graduating from the Art Academy, in 2010, Kristina returned to Belaya Tserkov, where she lives and works. She did not even try to stay in the capital.

«In total, I spent about ten years in Kiev, but I can’t call this city mine. It tired me too much. And the pictures were approximately the same: the city, the stream of people and one man runs against the crowd. He runs against everyone. He feels really hard».

She was inspired by nature. The young artist even bought a rural house in the Chernigov region.

«When I lived there, I did a lot of sketching from nature, and being in the studio I put on the canvas things I saw».

But far from civilization, it is very difficult to combine creativity with other aspects of the artist’s life (participation in exhibitions, for instance). Also, there were many private orders and this required active communication with customers. Therefore, Kristina had to come back home, to Belaya Tserkov.

What is Important for Happiness

The studies were over, and alongside with professional growth, it was time to arrange a private life. But it is not for nothing that they say that nature does not tolerate an overabundance and determines for the person that family and that circle of communication that correspond to his destination on earth.

If this is the case, then with respect to the Smelova universe was very stingy.

In 2014, Kristina became a mother. Her little daughter replaced the whole world. They were very happy together. Kristina felt in herself the power to raise a child without a husband, giving her all her unspent love and tenderness. But...

«When she was three months old, she caught some kind of infection, and we were taken in a hospital; first in one, then in another. My daughter was getting better; she felt good. But one day the nurses took her from me to the procedures, and in half an hour they took her out of the ward dead».

After the funeral, Kristina tried in vain to find out what really happened; she turned to different authorities. But the doctors, whose mistake had led to the death of the child, quickly covered the tracks: the pathologist wrote that the cause of death was severe pneumonia; a record of congenital heart disease suddenly appeared in the case report. Mother could never find out the truth.

About a year she almost didn’t come up to the easel.

«When it’s really bad, you cry on canvas, but I don’t like to show it to others. What for? We don’t show our records to anyone, no matter how bad and painful we feel, do we?»

One of the few paintings by Kristina Smelova, dated that period, is called ‘Being a Pawn’. On a black and white chessboard, there is a lone figure, knocked down, a small and weak pawn.

«We’re all pawns, no matter what you do, we are disenfranchised and helpless».

But Christina does find the strength to return to life. The fate, so cruelly treated her several years ago, again gave the joy of motherhood. A young mother has a daughter...

What will her baby become when she grows up? Will she become an artist too? Nobody knows this, but even today a little human takes a brush and tries to represent something...

This is hardly surprising as the craving for drawing is laid in all the kids. But I can’t understand how does she know, that you need to take a chisel and come up here (Kristina points to a not yet finished bas-relief - ed.)? She never saw me cutting out. Is it in her genes or something..?