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Russian World.
Publication in the Russian Business Magazine of the Volga Region.
“Promishlennost’ Rossii” – “The Business and Industrial Life of the Volga Region”. April Edition. 2005.
by Tamara Fokina
Anna Gerasimchuk (Nikolaenko) was born in Saratov in 1976. She is the third child in the family of University teachers, she’s got a good academic education and upbringing. Nikolaenkos liked to travel, liked Nature, valued thorough and all-rounded knowledge, were interested in history and philosophy. Anya graduated from the School of Music, passed exams and was excepted in the Saratov State University, college of Phylological Science. For almost three years she studied Art History during the Docent Courses of the Saratov State University in the Saratov State Art Gallery named after Radishev and graduated from the courses. Anna liked to play the guitar and even wrote her own songs. So it happed that beautiful, smart, talented Russian girl, who liked challenge and liked to travel, who already had a lot of skills and knowledge, including English language, came to US with a group of Russian students in 1993.Since then Anya lives in US. What does she do there? I would answer this rhetorical question in such a manner: she puts all her efforts and hard work into developing her God given talent, find her way in the Art world and in the World itself.
Anya got her Associates in Arts degree in 1996 from Aquinas College in Nashville, TN. She got her Bachelors of Arts in 1998 from Spalding University in Louisville, KY. Currently she is finishing up her Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies and working towards her Masters in Art Education from the University of Cincinnati.
In November 1998 and April 1999 Anna organized student concerts and exhibits “International Cultural Presentation” in Spalding University showing her talent towards managerial skills. The whole international department was involved in the Presentations. Anya worked in the Cincinnati Art Museum, were she was involved in the project of digitizing the Museum collection and creating the Reproduction Requests Database. At the same time she worked as a contract Graphic Designer developing Web pages and Graphics.
Anya participated in many art exhibits. In September 2003 and May 2004 she had her two solo art exhibits which were held in conjunction with the concerts of classical music. The concerts were a series of concerts called “Anna and Sergei Polusmiak and Friends of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra”.
I have to mention that Anya is also a mother of three little children – Nadya, Ilya and Pasha – 6, 4, and 2 years of age.
Only with God’s help could she accomplish so much. And, of course, during all these years Anna tried to use every moment to paint and draw, to study new techniques and work on her artistic style, her vision of harmony, beauty and deep essencial meaning of the visual world.
In her works she tries to unite imagination and reality. Her paintings are full of bright color, real body of trees, people, vases, which at the same time unite the viewers with the essense, the heart of all things. And this essence is always full of unexpected, unusual, momentary which Anya tries to capture and express with the subtle details of lines and colors.
I want to emphasize that her Art always carries the feeling of constant spiritual contemplation, which is close to Meditation. Maybe that is the individuality and the special trait of this young woman, who in her Art tries to achieve the state close to praying.
In the present, Anya works on the project “Unity of two Arts: Music and Visual Art”. As Anya explains: the goal of the project is to create a series of art pieces which will serve as the Visual descriptions of the Musical pieces done by the Ukrainian composer and Honor Artist of Ukraine, Mikhail Shukh. She hopes to organize a series of exhibits dedicated to this project during which visual art pieces will be accompanied by corresponding music. Thus the visitors will be able to comprehend the interconnectedness and unity of the visual and musical pieces, plus of the two Arts overall. The Visual art pieces will be done in oil and watercolor.
I am sure that this project will come to life. New ideas will follow. The reason for this is Anya’s many-sided talent, her love of life, spirituall maturity and deep Faith (she is a deep believing Orthodox Christian).
It is great that Anya returns to her roots - to Russia on the pages of this magazine. Artistic world of Anya Gerasimchuk – is the Russian world.