10 golden rules that all creative people should learn

Famous New York designer Milton Glaser shared what all creative talents need to learn.
1. Work only with people you like.
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It took me a long time to formulate this rule for myself. When I started, I thought on the contrary, that professionalism is the ability to work with any clients. But over the years, it became clear that the most meaningful and good design was invented for those customers who later became my friends. It seems that sympathy is much more important than professionalism in our work.
2. If you have a choice, don't take the job.
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I once heard an interview with the wonderful composer and philosopher John Cage. He was then 75. The presenter asked: “How to prepare for old age?” I always remember Cage’s response: “I have one piece of advice. Never go to work. If you go to the office every day throughout your life, one day you will be kicked out the door and sent to retirement. And then you certainly won’t be ready for old age - it will take you by surprise. Look at me. Since I was 12 years old, I have been doing the same thing every day: I wake up and think about how to earn a piece of bread. Life hasn't changed since I became an old man."
3. Avoid unpleasant people.
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This is a continuation of the first rule. In the 60s there was a Gestalt therapist named Fritz Perls. He suggested that in all relationships, people either poison each other's lives or fuel each other's lives. Moreover, everything depends not on the person, but on the relationship. You know, there is an easy way to check how communicating with someone affects you. Spend some time with this person, have dinner, go for a walk, or have a drink together. And pay attention to how you will feel after this meeting - inspired or tired. And everything will become clear. Always use this test.
4. Experience is not enough.
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I have already said that in my youth I was obsessed with professionalism. In fact, experience is another limitation. If you need a surgeon, you will most likely go to someone who has done this particular procedure many times. You don't need a man who intends to invent new way use a scalpel. No, no, no experiments, please do everything as you have always done it and as it was done before you. In our work, it’s the other way around - the one who doesn’t repeat himself and others is good. A good designer wants to use a scalpel in a new way every time or even decides to use a garden watering can instead of a scalpel.
5. Less is not always better.
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We've all heard the expression “less is more.” This is not entirely true. One fine morning I woke up and realized that this was most likely complete nonsense. It may sound good, but in our field this paradox makes no sense. Remember Persian carpets, would “less” be better in their case? The same can be said about the works of Gaudi, the art nouveau style and much more. Therefore, I formulated a new rule for myself: it is better when there is exactly as much as you need.
6. Lifestyle changes the way you think.
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The brain is the most sensitive organ in our body. It is most susceptible to change and regeneration. Several years ago there was an interesting story in the newspapers about the search for absolute pitch. As you know, it is rare even among musicians. I don’t know how, but scientists have found that people with absolute pitch have a different brain structure - some lobes are somehow deformed. This is already interesting. But then they found out an even more interesting thing - if children of 4-5 years old are taught to play the violin, there is a chance that the structure of the cerebral cortex will begin to change in some of them and absolute pitch will develop. I am sure that drawing affects the brain no less than playing music. But instead of hearing, we develop attention. A person who draws pays attention to what is happening around him - and this is not as simple as it seems.
7. Doubt is better than certainty.
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Everyone talks about how important it is to have confidence in what you do. My yoga teacher once said, “If you think you've reached enlightenment, you've only reached your limit.” This is true not only in spiritual practice, but also in work. For me, all formed ideological positions are doubtful, because perfection is endless development. I get nervous when someone believes something categorically. We must question everything. For designers, this problem appears even in art school, where we are taught the theory of the avant-garde and the fact that an individual can change the world. In a sense, this is true, but more often than not it ends in big problems with creative self-esteem. Commercial cooperation with someone is always a compromise, and this should never be resisted. You should always allow for the possibility that your opponent may be right. A couple of years ago I read Iris Murdoch’s best definition of love: “love is the extremely complex awareness that someone other than ourselves is real.” This is brilliant, and describes absolutely any coexistence of two people.
8. It doesn't matter.
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One year, for my birthday, I was given Roger Rosenblatt's book, Aging Gracefully. I didn't like the title, but the content interested me. The very first rule proposed by the author turned out to be the best. It sounds like this: “it doesn’t matter.” No matter what you think, follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It doesn't matter whether you are late or on time, whether you are here or there, whether you kept silent or said, whether you are smart or stupid. It doesn't matter what hairstyle you have or how your friends look at you. Will you be promoted at work, will you buy a new house, will you get Nobel Prize- none of this matters. This is wisdom!
9. Don't trust styles.
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Style is an irrelevant concept. It's foolish to give yourself to any one style because none of them deserve you entirely. For old-school designers, this has always been a problem, because over the years, handwriting and visual vocabulary are developed. But style fashion is mediated by economic indicators, that is, almost like mathematics - you can’t argue with it. Marx wrote about this. Therefore, every ten years the stylistic paradigm changes, and things begin to look different. The same thing happens with fonts and graphics. If you plan to stay in the profession for more than a decade, I highly recommend being prepared for this change.
10. Tell the truth.
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Sometimes I think that design is not the best place to search for truth. Of course, in our community there is a certain ethics, which, it seems, is even written down somewhere. But there is not a word in it about the designer’s relationship with society. They say that 50 years ago, everything sold with the label “veal” was actually chicken. Since then I have been tormented by the question, what was sold like chicken back then? Designers have just as much responsibility as butchers. Therefore, they must be careful about what they sell to people under the guise of veal. Doctors have an oath to “do no harm.” I believe that designers should also have their own oath - “Tell the truth.”
Milton Glaser is one of the most famous designers in the United States, an artist who created a huge number of graphic design masterpieces, including the famous I NY logo. In addition to practice, 80-year-old Glaser is also involved in theory: he lectures at universities, writes essays and theoretical discussions about the connection between design and art and their influence on each other, about the design profession and the complexities of the creative process.

Often the reason for an unsuccessful renovation is a simple misunderstanding: the client asks for one thing, the designer hears something else - and now the project turns out to be completely different from what we would like. Speaking with a specialist in the same language is not so difficult; all you need to do is prepare carefully and follow simple rules. The designer will tell you exactly which one.

Anastasia Orlova graduated from the ArtFuture design school with a degree in Interior Designer. Currently she is a student at the Faculty of Architecture at one of the oldest universities in the world - La Sapienza in Rome. Now he continues to engage in private practice in Russia, leading projects remotely and with the help of a team of like-minded people. Works on both private interiors of apartments, cottages, and projects of restaurants and hotels.

Let's say I found someone to contact and arranged a meeting. What do you need to think about in advance? Do you need to come with clear wishes or some kind of general vision, or is this still formed in the process of communication with the designer?

It will be useful to start “dreaming” in advance, carrying the thought of a future home in your head, scrolling through pictures on the Internet and saving them, writing them down or sending yourself messages with thoughts regarding the necessary functionality. Thus, by examining your daily habits, you will notice the nuances and, together with the designer, you will be able to more accurately customize your future home. It is very important at the dreaming stage to look and save pictures. These are not always clear images from the “I want it like this” series - you may like a certain element in them, or a color scheme, or a functional solution - everything that resonates with you in some way. Why does this matter? In addition to the fact that this will help the designer understand your stylistic preferences, it is equally important that in the process of considering examples a qualitative evolution occurs taste preferences. And what at the very beginning seems terribly original to you, after a while is perceived as hackneyed and tasteless. So it’s better to let this growth happen through examples on the Internet and before creating your own interior.

If before meeting with the designer you feel able to write a short or detailed list best wishes, great! But at the same time, if it seems to you that there is complete chaos in your head and you are not able to structure your thoughts, you should not be afraid or embarrassed. Tell the designer about your wishes in the order in which they are remembered, or come to mind, or are written down by you. Subsequently, the designer will process the information from your conversation, systematize it and create a technical specification based on it - an integral part of the contract.

In addition, the designer will ask additional questions or offer a questionnaire - they will also lead you to thoughts that may not have occurred to you. Ultimately, the technical specifications will be born in the process of dialogue.

It’s probably still worth adding a fly in the ointment and noting that a technical specification drawn up in insufficient detail causes damage to the customer: for reworking an advanced project due to wishes that were not voiced in advance, the designer may ask for an additional payment, and even live in an interior that does not meet all the needs, little joy.

Should I argue with a specialist? For example, I really want one large chandelier, but they offer me spotlights?

No need to argue. Both the designer and the customer should always remember that the goal is the same. You need to listen carefully to each other and not allow stubbornness and your own ambitions to take over. “Do I need to insist?” - the question is too ambiguous: being inside the situation, you will not find an objective answer to it. Trying to delineate the areas in which one or the other side has a prerogative, very generally I would say this:

Within the framework of aesthetics:

  • if you have doubts about the general image of the interior, then insist on further search;
  • if you are confused by certain elements of the interior and the designer assures you that it should be this way, perhaps you should listen more to a professional, because unlike the customer, who often sees constituent elements, the designer has a vision of the project as a whole.

In terms of the functional side of the issue, in my opinion, the customer’s opinion is decisive. But remember: before you is a person who regularly faces issues of organizing space - most likely, he has something to advise you.

- If I don’t know the special terms, will we understand each other?

Like something you don't have to own medical terminology When visiting a doctor, this will not be a problem in communicating with the designer. The designer will never begin to “make a diagnosis” based on what you call your favorite style - the conclusion will be made based on pictures and many other indirect signs. Well, naturally, the designer is interested in conveying his idea to you in normal language.

- What, besides the technical parameters of the room, matters? My habits, pets?

Literally everything matters: the habits and interests of each family member, their life inside and outside the home, the circle of household members, guests and relatives. Growth, possible allergies, pets are important - the list is endless and is discussed at the stage of drawing up the technical specifications (it may be replenished in the process). And the more of these parameters you and your designer manage to use, the more thoughtful and tailored your interior will be.

- Which are the most common mistakes What do customers allow when communicating?

  • You should always keep in mind that you and the designer are one team that is working towards the implementation of the project, and your common goal is to implement this project in the best possible way. If there is opposition in a relationship, something is not working correctly.
  • You hire a designer to provide you with the service of creating a living space. If at the same time you do not listen to his advice, make emotional purchases of materials or elements that do not correspond to the idea, or make changes to the project yourself, then you will not receive less benefit from the ordered service.
  • I would recommend always ordering a project with the selection of materials and supervision. This disciplines the designer, not allowing his creativity to break away from earthly realities, and ensures that your ideas are realized not only on paper, but also in life. A very small percentage of customers can carry out this work independently.

Take care of the designers and remember that you will have to work in conjunction with him from several months to several years (depending on the scale of the project) - during this time people often manage to become quite close.

Photos: jennifercovingtondesigns.weebly.com, gallery-ot.ru, storyhouse.pw

Vladimir Borisovich Sverdlov - designer, sculptor, member of the St. Petersburg Union of Designers, chairman of the art design section, graduate of the St. Petersburg State Academy of Arts and Industry named after. Baron A.L. Stieglitz (Mukhinsky School). His sculptures are valued not only in Russia, but also abroad. Vladimir Borisovich is the author of the portrait of Joseph Brodsky, donated to the Library of the US Congress. Currently, Sverdlov is engaged in the creation of art objects, chamber plastics, and glyptics.

On December 15, 2015, a meeting will take place with Vladimir Borisovich at the Moika-8 lecture hall. On the eve of this event, we were able to communicate with him in the unique atmosphere of a creative workshop, the path to which turned out to be very symbolic. Understanding and knowledge of the author’s creative ideas was as deep as walking through the front doors into the depths of the St. Petersburg courtyard, and the purity of the idea and form is like an illuminated clean workshop on a dark cloudy evening.

Vladimir Borisovich, what is art design for you, how do you see it?

Art design was born much earlier than I was, and no one can say exactly how many millennia ago it is. There is such a specialist on Egypt, Jorge Angel Livrago Rizzi, a leading expert in the world. He said that structures like big Egyptian pyramid date back at least 17 thousand years. We will consider that such a structure is the beginning of art design, because dozens of concepts are collected in one building: scientific, technical, architectural, art, medicine, and space. The pyramid is both a receiver and a transmitter at the same time. This has always worried me, and I decided to make a pyramid, which can only be called a pyramid by its contours, but in fact it is more than a pyramidal shape, and there are no pharaohs inside. There is space and time. By the way, modern science explains the convergence of these two parameters, space and time, just like this geometric formula: mutually perpendicular two cylindrical holes. That is, if you take a sheet and bend it along the radius, then there is only one hole, and then the formation of a second hole takes time. Here the convergence of these two holes is a very thin bridge. There is practically no matter between time and space. And light models the form so that it flows from one substance to another.

Tell us about your “pyramid”?

In 2003, a competition was announced for a monument dedicated to the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg on Mytninskaya embankment. I wanted to build a pyramid.

IN Ancient Egypt They said that everyone is afraid of time, but time is afraid of the pyramids. Why is it afraid of the pyramidal shape? This was not just said 4 thousand years ago. Because everything material in this world turns, sooner or later, into a pyramidal form - into a pile. And in view of the fact that the organization of all matter is directed in the four directions of space, absolutely everything turns into a pyramidal shape over time, and time cannot do anything about it. It builds the pyramid itself. These civilizations that existed before us knew this very well. Boris Demin, when he first saw the pyramid, said: “It feels like I’ve already seen it in some textbook.” From the designer, everything should be similar to the final product. The real design is a work of art. At the end of the 20th century, many of the world's leading designers believed that the true product of design is a work of art. But there are apologists who believe that art is art, and design is design. But the fact is that the function of “beauty” is inherent in the same philosophical idea as the function of “being needed.” A shovel has been needed for several thousand years, but in the end a person learns to do without a shovel, and he cannot live without beauty. That is, the dominant function is still beauty. Beauty saves the world all the time. Although there are vandals who are constantly destroying beauty. But here there is already a duel between God and the devil. The devil must destroy what is created with great difficulty. If it were not for God, then nothing would have been created by man.

Are the ideas for your works immediately formed in your head or during the work process?

No, in progress. Inventing and drawing is easy and simple. I just need to fall asleep and for an idea to appear in a dream, in the morning I can already draw it, this was the case with the pyramid, by the way. But when I started sculpting it, it was unclear how to build these walls without supports. And I need to mold them in order to cast a pyramid. I had to get rid of it. At first I made only the windows in the pyramid, but without the radii. And when I received this monolith in plaster with mutually perpendicular windows, then I began to refine the radii in plaster. And I got a model. I molded it again and cast it in plaster, but with radii. brought them very close to perfect condition. But when I cast in metal, I realized that I had not done anything yet. And for more than 2 years I brought the pyramid to perfect condition.

Basically my theory: there should be air everywhere in the sculpture, stop stealing it. With the help of traditional sculpture, the entire interior space is stolen by all the sculptors of the world. A stone is taken, a bronze is taken, and the space is clamped. All my works contain air. And we continue to erect figurative monuments.

Your works have such a deep philosophical meaning.

There is no design without philosophy! Where we talk about design without philosophy, this is decorative and applied art. And design is necessarily a philosophy.

Then can I ask you if there is a place for intuition in design?

Everything is based on intuition, but is popularly called fantasy. But in reality it is intuition. A designer must see much further than everyone else around him. And in general, my definition of design is everything that humanity will need after some time. What we have now is technocracy, engineering - this is what is needed now. Do something with computers, laptops, and so on. This is needed now, this is what business requires from all specialists: give it right now - I’ll sell it. But the designer must look much further. And the art designer must also feel the beauty, about which so much has been said for thousands of years, it would seem that there is nothing to add. So all that remains is to douse the doors and set them on fire, but this is not a way out of the situation. We must look for beauty all the time.

Regarding intuition: is there a lot of it in your works?

And it’s not for me to judge. I'm in a different area. How much, how little? The most important thing is that you feel it or not. If you feel it, determine how much it is - again it takes time, how much of this intuition I have. Joseph Brodsky wrote in Roman Elegies:
I learned about my – and any – future from the letter, from the black paint.
So deep.

In your work there are many works dedicated to Joseph Brodsky. Why do you return to him?

I also return to Pushkin.
And the rose maidens drink the breath, - Perhaps... full of Plague! (A. S. Pushkin “Feast during the Plague”)
These are the seers. And one and the other. Only one is from the 19th century, and the second is from the 20th century.

Brodsky’s daughter, when she saw the sculpture, asked: “Can I touch it?” I replied: “It’s possible, if I can touch you.” And I touched Brodsky’s daughter. "Brodsky's severed head." See the jagged edge? She is not cut off, but torn from something big. Genius. The man who said: “In the era of friction, the speed of light is the speed of vision. Even if there is no light."
Another concept that no one knows. I would dream of putting a big head in Venice, and you can go into Brodsky’s head. And when you grow up, you can no longer enter, you can’t even crawl, but when you’re little you can climb in. Then, when a person grows up, he says: “And I visited Brodsky as a child.” And all letters, just like poetry, are written mirrored inside. With Brodsky it’s the other way around.



How many portraits of him do you have?

I won't talk, otherwise you'll think I'm crazy.

Did Brodsky greatly influence you and your work?

Many people influenced me: dad, mom, older brother.

It is difficult to resist asking questions related to your family. Since you grew up in a creative atmosphere, how did this influence your future? You were faced with a choice: a creative profession or, for example, a mathematician, chemist, accountant?

Now I’ll tell you an episode from my life. I'm in the nursery art school. My teacher is my father's student. And he says: “Vova, tomorrow we will not draw on a sheet of paper, but on a tablet. You need to stretch the paper onto the tablet. Tell your parents, they will teach you, and come to school with a tablet.” I come and explain to my parents, they say: “Don’t worry, we’ll do everything.” And they hand me a tablet. I never saw what it was, but when my parents pulled the tablet, there were sails in the corners. I started crying. My father said to my mother quietly, in a whisper, as I remember now: “That’s it. Everything is clear with this!” Then, when before the army I worked in an architectural studio, as an intern architect - this was my first entry in my work book, I had to pull at least 30 tablets a day for architects. I can already pull the tablet with my eyes closed.

Did you work with your brother then?

No, my brother never took me under his wing. He just watched from the side what I was doing. Then he began to tell his children: “Look at uncle, everything with him is not the same as with me and you need to learn this too.”

Why didn’t you go into architecture?

And I went into architecture. I studied for a whole year at the Faculty of Architecture. I saw that there was only crap there and joined the army. After the army, he entered the Kharkov Art and Industrial Institute, the same oldest as the Academy. A.L. Stieglitz.

Why did you transfer to the Academy. A.L. Stieglitz?

I came to my friend’s wedding after my sophomore year and met my future wife. Her dad said to me: “How will you live in Kharkov, and she is here in Leningrad?” “It’s okay, it’ll transfer,” I said, “there are 47 universities in Kharkov.” And the wife said: “No, it’s better for you to transfer.”

Do you regret this choice?

I'm sorry. Mucha is weaker than the Kharkov Institute.

Do you have good impressions of the Stieglitz Academy?

Well, of course, they stayed. Part of my life was there, I completed 4-5 courses. Everyone came to look at my drawing. The head of the drawing department at that time was Vladimir Ivanovich Shistko, he offered to stay at the Mukhinsky School. I said "No. I am a designer". He said: “It’s a shame. You have the best drawing on the course.”

Which department did you graduate from?

Industrial Design. After the Mukhinsky College, I worked for 17 years as an industrial designer. From young specialist to a leading designer in the industry. The minister presented me with the MRP (Ministry of Radio Instrumentation) medal. And then Gorbachev came and said that we don’t need all this, such products as “Leningrad”, “Galaktika”, “Amphiton”, “Blues” and so on. I have a folder with purely designer items.

What is the topic of your thesis?

A spaceship with astronauts inside. These astronauts must do physical labor so that their muscles, ligaments, and bones do not atrophy. It was necessary to create a rehabilitation area. Remember spaceship: a large cylinder, a cone and then a small cylinder. And in the conical part I came up with a “squirrel wheel” around the perimeter. All you have to do is attach yourself to the base of this “squirrel wheel” with rubber straps and you can just run along a track. You can also lay out a wall bars; the bicycle ergonomics unit for rowing is removed from the wall bars. And everything is very compact, multifunctional and, most importantly, there are no costs for power, you don’t need to take additional engines into space.

What kind of factory did you work?

CNPO "Leninets". Super equipment for navigation was made there.
The Leningrad-10 receiver was one of my first works at the plant. Then there was a two-cassette tape recorder, a meter for taxi drivers, a receiver with portable acoustics, a cassette player for audio cassettes, an “Argo”, a “Galaktika” radio tape recorder, for which I received a medal.

Tower “XX-XXI” is a monument dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Russian avant-garde. What inspired you to create it?

I was inspired by the fact that in our country there is nothing as deep as the “Black Square”. It wasn’t inspiration, but something else, probably resentment. I'm terribly offended. All modern art: Western, Western European, American, all of it was formed only thanks to the likes of Malevich, Kandinsky, Leonidov in architecture and others.

It turns out that the Russian Avant-garde contributed to the development of Western art?

Yes! Absolutely! Most recently, the Hermitage hosted an exhibition of Zaha Hadid. She said that the Russian avant-garde is her icon. But we haven’t put anything in place and don’t relate to it in any way.

Why do you use this particular material? Why gloss?

Here is the leading specialist of contemporary art of the Hermitage Ozerkov D.Yu. I also asked: “Why don’t you have an invoice?” I personally believe that everything related to texture is a deception. "Decorative". The form cannot be deceived by the texture. Smooth, calm water is our most secret weapon. Without water and without air, humanity could not exist. I naturally learn from nature. The smooth shape of the water, perfectly smooth, one can only envy how easily it makes colossal planes perfectly even. Moreover, it organizes itself. Earth can't, but water can do it easily. And what is this smooth shape for? There may be colossal energy on its surface, but we cannot use this energy.

Does it happen in the flight of creative thought that you encounter limitations imposed by nature itself? That is, the force of gravity, for example.

I'll tell you what limitations I face. Now, if all these thoughts and ideas and concepts - all this would have come to me when I was 20 years old, I would be happy. But, unfortunately, I was already in my 60s when I began to think seriously about what was happening around me. And this is the biggest difficulty. Don’t straighten up sometimes...

Here we touched on the time period 20 years ago and now. I would like to ask about the viewer: The viewer at that time of your first sculpture and the viewer now. How does the change of generations affect it?

Doesn't change fundamentally. They groan, gasp, and kill me with the question: “Why did you do this?”

Do you consider all your work completed?

No. I always have a constant feeling of dissatisfaction. I would like to do it differently, not fundamentally differently, but somewhere in the details, but differently. The vision is constantly changing. There was such a professor in Kharkov, M.A. Shaposhnikov, who studied at the Bauhaus with Kandinsky. He was already over 80 when I studied. He marked the scores on the end of the tablet. So he goes along the wall and watches how the tablet is stretched, and bets 3-2. I go up to my tablet, and I have a 5. Gennady Stepanovich, my first curator, said: “If I were you, I would cut out this five from the tablet, go up to Shaposhnikov and take an autograph. You don't know what Shaposhnikov is. In all history, no one has had an A. You're the first". Vaks I.A. when he found out that Shaposhnikov was teaching with me, he shook my hand and bowed. But in general, everything related to studies, I would accumulate everything on the theories of those architects, artists, designers of the early 20th century. They wrote so much. We, our generation, were robbed with terrible force. There were so many unique theories on constructivism.

At what point did you switch to this form-building from industrial design?

Since childhood. I always did.

What is the principle of technique for performing your work?

The technique of execution is this: This is the mind. It must be equipped with all the intricacies of technology that existed before me. My knowledge is my main tool. Then intuition. What to do with them? How to compress all this knowledge so that it turns into a form, into an image. But when I started sculpting (about a tower, a pyramid), I almost went crazy from how many new things I learned in the process. That is, everything that happens new in art is only the very top layer, like an iceberg.

You need to create such a thing so that it is more significant than the previous ones. Words are born on the basis of form, like Brodsky:

Here on the hills, among the empty skies,
Among the roads leading only to the forest,
Life retreats from itself
And looks in amazement at the forms.

First with surprise, and then the perception of the quintessence begins, what it is - the form, what stands behind it.
I would like everything you see to be understood at the level of not only biology “like it or not,” but on the basis of the mind, so that perception goes through the primary – through the mind. So that you have an understanding.

Thank you very much for the interesting conversation. I can listen to you endlessly. Lucky is the one who gets to attend your lecture.

Was glad.

The meeting turned out to be sincere and warm. During the conversation, Vladimir Borisovich not only shared his views on what is happening in contemporary art, but also revealed the deep essence of his works, showed the path that he himself goes through every time he creates his masterpieces. Hearing first-hand how an idea was born and an art object was created is one of the rare opportunities that we have in life. We hope that Vladimir Borisovich will still long years will delight and inspire us with his creativity.