I believe in myself and in miracles. Tina Vassa
I'm not afraid to scare away the viewer. Dolls influence the subconscious, evoking a number of personal associations and fantasies. Many of my dolls are encrypted, and thus attract the public. My works are in demand and loved by many. The category of people who acquire my works are distinguished by very broad views of the world, art, and man.
I want my art not to give definitive answers, but to provoke consciousness to search for them. Let the mind be confused.
Fog
Your work evokes conflicting feelings. These are not just dolls. They are thought-provoking, sometimes causing anxiety. What do you feel, what do you think about when you do them?
Yes, my work evokes mixed emotions and feedback. This is my passion - a job with which I challenge common stereotypes and preconceptions about art in general.
I find it difficult to answer this question. A commercial doll differs from a doll born out of inspiration, in a fit, from a project, an art object. I don't have the right to put all my emotions into a doll for sale (sadness, sadness, for example). Therefore, I create this category of work on vacation, by the sea, in another country, when I feel good and calm. Projects and art objects carry my emotions and experiences, and not even always mine, but also the surrounding world. As a rule, they hang with me for a long time, on the "mezzanine". Therefore, emotions must be filtered and put into a doll that will live in another house, only positive ones.
The connection with my dolls is through my hands, skills and ideas. The semantic load is not connected with my soul and mood when I sculpt a doll in a private collection.
Elf
You are an illustrator by training. Why suddenly dolls?
At the Academy of Arts, I received a good base and knowledge, techniques and the ability to work with materials. The flat image became uninteresting to me almost immediately. It seemed to me that in the illustration I could not fully reveal the idea and find an emotional response. Doll - volume, color, textiles. Even this is sometimes not enough for me and I am distracted by working on art objects that collect everything that surrounds me. Flea markets are used, Mom's and my dresses, and all sorts of other things.
Do you have any connection with your works?
There must be a connection. After all, when I sculpt, polish, paint and make a costume, then at these moments I breathe the same air with the doll. With every second she absorbs and lives with me my life. That is why, as I noted above, I try to make a doll in a good mood, when I'm calm, I turn off emotions, but the connection with it goes through my hands and, whatever one may say, through love. After all, this is a favorite thing. Some dolls are hard to part with. Ideas hatch over them sometimes for weeks and months. And there are dolls that are born out of nothing. Simply put together like a puzzle from everything that is at hand. These instantly fly into private collections.
Malvina's last kiss
Do you usually want to express something in your works or does it happen against your will?
Do I want to express something in dolls or is it against my desire? Both. Probably, to demonstrate the uniqueness, dissimilarity, your own handwriting. Now it turns out involuntarily, apart from my desires. This is probably the author's style. Sometimes I would like to blind the beauty, but the hand does the opposite, so that "not like everyone else."
And I also want the viewer to think that my dolls are telling a story. So that the emotions and appearance of the doll carry a little more than just an object - a doll. And this story is invented by the collector himself. The same is the case with the names for my characters, it is extremely rare that I myself give names to dolls. I am only a creator and a collector is a parent. There is already a story between him and the doll.
Unusual, scary dolls can be really different too. From cute to disgusting. It is also a way to show that they can be so, not only "marshmallow beauties", but also "others."
The doll should be unique, stand out from the rest, have a unique image and character. And beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
What motivates you to make dolls?
Besides pleasure, dolls are my main activity, work, income. "Special" dolls and projects are made on a special kind of fuel - enthusiasm, without commercial motives. These works excite the imagination of the public, but do not immediately find their home.
You are happy? What makes you happy?
I am absolutely happy! My family, the work I love, the travels in which I take my job, the whole world around me makes me happy. Every movement in my life and my world is not in vain. I just go with the flow, doing what I love, and I am happy about it.
What do you believe in?
I believe in myself and in miracles.
Do you regret anything in the past? What would you change if you could start life over again?
Nothing to regret. There are no coincidences. Everything is exactly as it should be. This is how it works for me.
If you died, but you were offered to return in the form of some object or animal, who would you choose?
I would not want to be an animal or an object .. I like to be who I am now. It can only be space.
Pinocchio. The boy is not the same.
Tina, you won the Gaudir Grand Prix for two years in a row. Moreover, your participation has played a significant role in positioning it as a competition with a high level of participants. Do you think it is important or not for professional artists to take part in competitions?
Competitions allow to demonstrate professional skills of both professional artists and artists without education. Competitions are the identification of talents, the implementation of projects, PR. They give a specific result: audience, portfolio, rating points, earnings, recognition, and more. Of course, I consider it important to participate in competitions, since for me it is always immersion in the world of emotions and skill of other artists, the world of competition and the opportunity to show my art. Show the other side of your work, “other” dolls and projects, to shock and excite in some way.
Do you have a goal?
There are goals and dreams, but I will not tell about them. Happiness loves silence. But seriously, I want to raise a decent decent person. To keep my loved ones healthy. I want to do what I love.
Echo
A person without art education, but striving to achieve a certain skill through self-education, can in the end equalize with professional artists or will there always be a noticeable difference?
This topic is sensitive, requires tact, it worries many.
An artist without education is very curious, he is constantly on the move and learns a lot. Through trial and error, sometimes masterpieces are born or a person finds his own unique style. Such an artist is more free in the creative aspect than the pros. His works are filled with energy and inspiration.
Constant practice is also important. Pros without practice are a kettle. Theory is one thing, but practice is quite another. A pro is the one who confirms his skill with practice and results.
An artist is not a diploma and education, it is a way of life, soul, fantasy, intuition.
The amateur built Noah's ark, and the professional the Titanic.
An academic artist may have obstacles to rules and requirements for form, color, proportions (this sometimes bothers me, by the way), but self-taught people do not have these dogmas, and they create without looking at the rules and authorities.
There is also a lot of controversy and bewilderment about the prices of works by those and other artists. There is a price and there is a value. Often one does not correspond to the other.