Dear Artist, As part of our efforts to help the members of our artistic group get to know each other better, we kindly invite you to answer the following 12 questions and send us your CV along with your responses. Thank you for being part of our artistic community.
1. Could you introduce yourself as an artist and tell us when your relationship with art began?
Hi, there! My name is Olga Slobodkina-Tyszkiewicz von Brömssen. I was born into the family of renowned Soviet scientists in Moscow, Russia. My parents and grandparents were highly cultural, educated and talented people interested in music, literature and fine arts.
My grandfather in the mother's line Aleksander Laksztowski was not only the country's top specialist in aviation jets, but also an admirable singer and artist. He had a rare bass, like Fyodor Shalyapin's, and was invited to Moscow Conservatory by a Professor who was ready to take him to any course of his. He also played the guitar and painted in oils. He was a descendant of the Polish counts, the Tyszkiewicz family, from Krakov.
My grandmother in the father's line Irene von Brömssen was also of noble origin and educated as a pianist and a French speaker.
My granny in the mother's line Beata Antokolsky was a dancer at the Bolshoy Ballet Dance School. Her father Alexander Antokolsky kept a private photo shop and was an actor in the silent movies.
My grandfather in the father's line Mark Slobodkin was an ouststanding scientist, the creator of the coal-cutting theory (his results were used by Germans and Americans) and a passionate art collector.
All that preconditioned my cultural background. My way in the world of art started with music. My mother took me a piano teacher when I was 5 (I wrote my first poem and story also at the age of 5) and then I went to the Prokofyev School of Music # 1 in Moscow. I participated in the National and Regional Competitions of young pianists and school concerts and everybody thought I'd make a great pianist, but...
English flooded
my heart and soul
From top to toe...
So after the graduation of the Pkokofyev School of Music I decided to go to the Institute of Foreign Languages and become a translator. When I graduated from the Institute with the qualification of a teacher of English and German I was enrolled into the 2 year Higher course for translators and got the top qualification as a translator from Russian into English.
After the Institute I also joined the seminar for fiction translation at the Union of Writers and translated a lot of good fiction from English into Russian, including Shakepseare, D.H. Lawrnce and R.M. Rilke as well as many other outstanding English, American, French and Austrian writers and poets.
https://lit.lib.ru/s/slobodkina_o/
https://lit.lib.ru/s/slobodkina_o/about.shtml
I was very lucky as a translator - I worked with World Stars in film, theatre and dance. Richard Gere, George White, Founder and First President of the Eugene O'Neil Theatre Center, Jaque d'Amoise, President of the National Dance Institute in New York, Peter Brook, Natasha Parry, Cicely Tyson, Leonard Nemoy, Paul Winter, Vanessa Redgrave, directors of International Film and Theatre Festivals and famous film critics Deborah Young and Herald Myers.
At school and at the Institute I started composing songs in the style of the old English ballad using poems of the great English poets of the past - P.B. Shelly, Thomas Hardy and some others. Later, in 1987 I won the National Singing Competition "The Festival of Pop Music" in Gorky Park.
In 2003 I recorded some of my songs in a profi studio in Moscow.
http://art-rosa.info/files/audio/file_id-12
https://art-rosa.info/files/audio/file_id-127
https://art-rosa.info/files/audio/file_id-128
Today I'm an International award-winning poet and fine art photographer. This is apart from my profession. This is creativity. I also wrote quite a number of stories on Russian art and published them in English-speaking newspapers and magazines.
2.What inspired you to choose this path?
If someone had told me before I was 30 that I'd be an International artist with over 2500 top awards and certificates of world standards in fine art photography I would have never believed them. I'd rather believe in a pop singer or actress. At the Institute I acted at the English Theatre. But that's what happened. In my youth I had some great dreams (apart from my profession and travelling) - to be a figure skater, to learn to play tennis well, to mountain ski and to paint. Yes, I did want to paint, very much so, but never took a single class in paining (unlike my brother who went to an Art School in Moscow). I tried, tried hard when I was a teen-ager, but was never satisfied with the result.
Then when I was 27 I started going to Koktebel, the Crimea. A miraculous place next to the ancient extinct vulcano Kara-Dag. It was so full of creative energy that everyone who had a speck of creativity in their hearts was urged to do something. There were a lot of poets, writers and artists. I prefered to communicate with artist. But it was not that. Kara-Dag's great spirit taught me composition and how to fit it into the frame. And yet I was not happy. And then the photo camera... As soon as I took it into my hands I realized that this match is perfect.
A lot of water has flown under the bridges since then, so... to make the long story short I will tell you - I started with landscapes, both realistic and phantasmal, and gradually came to abstraction. Which I see everywhere - in nature, in architecture. As the famous Russian artist Robert Falk once said: "Realistic artists are making soap whilte abstract ones create a formula". As any premise this one is not flawless, but there is something in it. So I am developing my formula(s) and the themes are reflections, shadows, whatever I think it worthy to put my artistic message across - reflections in the lakes and ponds, in the windows, in the roofs and windscreens of parked cars as I go along them on the pavement or see them from my balcony. But again I would have never thought I'd be able to reveal my vision and metaphysical ecstasy so mighty and vigorously in absract fine art photography.
Quite by chance I also pioneeres a new direction - The Art of Random Images. Once I went into my study in the morning and my eyes were glued to a Girl in the Style of Art Nouveau in a cup of finished coffee. I grabbed my camera and made several takes. And some - the next day. This Girl won me a Special Prize in the Incheon Metropolitan City Contest in 2023. And one more thing - since I wanted to paint I'm trying to create fine art with the help of a photo camera. If my works look like oils, pastels or graphic art I have a good feeling. If they look just like beautiful photos I'm in two minds...
3. Which of your artworks is closest to your heart, and why is it particularly meaningful to you?
I love all my works. I mean those that pan out. I sometimes edit them, but not much. I cannot think of a particular work. I photograph in series and thus with the time whole collections are formed - "Windscreen story boards", "City wall frescoes" etc. I'm most excited about my recent works as I publish them at my pages given to me for free by viewbug.com and the Russian non-stop photography site:
I love photographing, but that is no longer enough. I definitely want to make films. I have done some short videos, but that is not what I really want. I want to shoot a feature film. I have a fantastic historical subject in my mind with a love story on par with Romeo and Juliet... I need a good director. Karim Aïnouz, for example. I loved his FIREBRAND 2024 with Alicia Vikander and Jude Law. Historical films are usually stupid, because the actors do not know what it means to be King or Queen. They can only play lovers. But his film is breathtaking. I'd also offer some of my songs for this film.
4. When you begin a new artwork, where does your inspiration usually come from - personal experiences, reality, or imagination?
Good question. Once a sales girl in a photo lab looked at my photos and asked me: "Do you photograph yourself?" I laughed. Of course, not. I have Invisible and Very Talented Help from Above, althoug I know I should not mention it. But it's this special vision put through me that really matters. I just make a click. As soon as I see something great I take out my camera, which is always with me, and go! So to answer your question - all the 3: personal experiences, reality and imagination.
5.Is there a person, artist, or experience that has had a major influence on your artistic journey?
Well, I made an attempt to avoid the subject when I was telling you about Koktebel and the influence of Kara-Dag, but there had been a precurser. At the age of 21 I had a tremendous emotional splash, which changed me a lot and opened up the world of fine arts for me.
6. How did it influence you?
It influenced me in such a way that an artist began to ripe inside me. It took it some 10 years... Then the Spirit directed me towards Koktebel and the artist was born. There and then.
6. What theme, issue, or message do you most like to express through your art, even when you do not address it directly?
Beauty and originality. I'm creating my own phantasmal world with my pix, but draw it from reality, which no one else can see, except for me. I'm happy to share it with the world.
7.Have you ever experienced a moment when you wanted to give up on art?
No, art has always been my rapture, fulfillment and consolation. Creativity itself, not P.R., of course. It actually helped me to survive and became my alter ego and the meaning of my life. Although for a long time I had a hunch - nothing was happening in my photo art. Nothing at all. I thought I was repeating myself in the same sujet(s) over and over again. But then as in the chemical system of Mindeleev the quantity leaped into a new quality. In his system a new element appeared, in my art - a new theme. Like I told you before - "Windscreen story boards" and "Wall City Frescoes", for example, and they began to sound fresh and new.
I went on and on even when I thought nothing new was happening in my art, because, I repeat, art and poetry are the meaning of my life. I was a bit disappointed with myself, but never lost my footage.
9.How would you describe your artistic style to someone seeing your work for the first time?
Well, I really prefer to stay away from philistine "precious" opinions. I've had enough of them. But I get really happy when intelligent and knowledgeable art critics put their thoughts about my art on paper or computer. For example, Natella Voiskunskaya and William Meiland, the most famous ones in my country. Then my heart soars:
As for my poetry, I came to loose blank verse with an occasional rhyme in Russian and in English, from which I actually started. I gave tribute to the classical rhymed verse in Russian, which was a good training, like practicing the scales, but that is not my cup of tea. When Joseph Brodsky, the Noble Prize-winning poet, wrote me a letter in response to a selection of my poetry that I had sent him in New York in 1995, I realized that I did not have to stick to the already existing, but be free and get whatever I was getting from the Direct Spiritual Flow that I was having from Above.
I placed Brodky's letter in the inside cover of my hand-written book of poetry with my origial photos glued into each copy. Copies of this book were purchesed by MOMA in New York and VICTORIA AND ALBERT'S in London during the International Conference BOOK AS AN OBJECT OF ART. Other copies were sent to unique collections of outstanding people of art and politicians, for example, Tomas von Brömssen, the famous Scandinavian comic actor and my relative in the Sweedish line, or Jacques René Chirac, the President of the French Republic.
10. Do you think your style has changed over the years?
At the beginning I told you it has changed from landscape to abstraction. But can I call it "my style"? I'm not sure. I'm always on the move, always looking for something new and exciting...
11. If you had the opportunity to convey one message to the world through a single painting or artwork, what would that message be?
Beauty, love (in the best spiritual sense) and purity.
12. What does being part of an artistic group that brings together artists from different cultures and backgrounds mean to you?
Apart from my family, it's the only worthy communication. I'm trying to stay away as far as I can from non-professional opinions. So... only the Group Admins (who are our Guardian Angels) and peer artists who are supporting me and sharing with me the new art projects and groups. And if I'm lucky, film-makers and actors in the future, but not as their translator again this time, but as a camera lady and a scrip-writer. Colleagues.
13. What do you hope to learn from your fellow artists?
If I see something valuable for myself I'll certainly take the opportunity to enrich my mind and art.
14. Beyond your art, what is one thing you would like the other members of the group to know about you?
Read my essay "What's poetry and what is love"? That would be the answer.
15. How do you find your experience with "Hitma - Art in the Service of Humanitarian Action and the Sustainable Development Goals"?
I applaud the efforts of our Admin. This experience is 100% fruitful and positive.
16. What does using art to serve people, peace, and sustainable development mean to you?
I admire the honest hard and totally disinterested work of the Admins of my International Art Groups. They are promoting good things through art. We, artists, only contribute with our works.
And I know very well what it means to do a social project. I was doing one for over 10 years raising money, getting together efforts, texts and photos, working with 100 people... without earning a single dollar...
17. What are your thoughts about the artistic group and your experience in it so far?
I love the group and appreciate the hard work of our Admin Mohammad Sharif Mohammad. His attitude towards artists is exclusively positive, warm and polite.
18. Are you familiar with Hitma's humanitarian, cultural, and social work beyond the artistic activities? If so, what aspect has attracted your attention the most?
I am participating in all HITMA events. Apart from the artistic activities ecological programs are most important for me. Intercultural dialogue is also great as well as sustainable development. I'm always ready to work for these goals. I'm a member of HITMA and have their International membership card with a personal ID.
Thank you!
Mohammad Sharif Mohammad
HITMA (полное название - HITMA Organization for Cultural and Social Development, также известное как Hitma Group или HITMA Art Community) - это международная культурно-социальная организация, объединяющая художников и творческих деятелей со всего мира.
Главный девиз и миссия сообщества - "Искусство на службе мира и человечества" ("Art in the Service of Peace and Humanity"). Организация использует творчество как универсальный язык для содействия межкультурному диалогу, устойчивому развитию и защите экологии.
Основные направления деятельности
Международные онлайн-выставки: Организация регулярно проводит масштабные виртуальные выставки (например, HITMA International Art Exhibition 2026), привлекая сотни авторов из десятков стран (включая Индию, Пакистан, Филиппины, Сербию, Иран и др.).
Поддержка глобальных инициатив ООН: HITMA активно сотрудничает с международными программами. В частности, их выставки проходят в поддержку кампании ООН "Футбол ради целей" (Football for the Goals / FFTG Cup), объединяя спорт и искусство для популяризации Целей устойчивого развития (ЦУР).
Социальные и экологические манифесты: Сообщество продвигает среди художников ценности волонтерства, толерантности и борьбы с изменением климата (Art for Climate, Art for Peace).