SPACE

2020.08

Oksana

Your name is quite exotic, where does it originate from?

My name is common as pine cones. I am from Belarus, the name can be described more or less as Russian.

What or who brought you to Space?

Brother Jopa and the fascination with Ender's blue eyes brought me to space. At the time that I came to space there was a lot of techy men doing fascinating things and I could not resist to pay rent for a desk to be around them. Also I needed to paint very large panels and had no space in my house.

What’s your artistic activity?

My artistic activity is constant. I sketchbook every day, usually stream of consciousness drawings to flush out the shapeless language of the psyche or to sketch an image I like online or from life. If I am painting for a client I usually will use a reference to meet their requests and fill in the gaps from imagination. If I am panting for myself I frequently use a reference photo, preferably one that I've taken or a friends' and disregarding all colour theory paint my take on the situation. I will also frequently paint animals. I prefer to work in portrait format, as in, a head on shot of the subject. I use water based media. I make rectangular flat things.

We talked about Wim Hof and icy pond excursions, tell me a little about that…

The best way to get through living in a cold climate is use the cold to the fullest. I like to acclimatize by swimming in really cold water. I go to Lynn Valley in the middle of winter and through the Wim Hof breath technique obtain a lot of joy from sitting in an icy river. I went to meet Wim several years ago in Poland at a course and I can attest that he's really great.

And the near death adventure with the yellow river pool toy…your observation on how it related to your work…

As I was dangerously being swept downstream a shallow river by a half deflated ducky pool toy I came to realization that I enjoyed my precarious situation a lot more as I related to the flotation device empathically because it was a duck. I think this is why I have the proclivity to paint faces and animals, to stimulate empathy and serotonin release in myself and viewers and imbue inanimate objects with a consciousness.

URL

@oxana_gaida