Creating art is a study in relationships – the artist’s creative process involves a constant weighing and balancing of the relationships between forms, colors and textures to create a final piece that resonates with integrity. Human relationships are much more complex and incorporating these issues into the creative context brings an additional set of challenges to the artist.
Andrey Noda is an artist from Kazakhstan whose engaging work reveals his mastery of technical relationships as well as his portrayal of the relationships between people, which is the cornerstone of his art. Human relationships are very important to Noda, which is obvious not only through his work but by the presence of a particular page on his website that I rarely see in an artist’s portfolio: an entire photo album of personal and family photos, all in black-and-white. I loved this visual glimpse into the artist as a person. It’s warm, funny and fascinating.
Relationships and people obviously have great significance for Noda, yet many of the subjects, particularly in his “Figure” series of paintings, are solitary. I asked him about his inspiration behind these paintings.
“You have correctly grasped my key approach to work – the relationships between people,” Noda tells me. “But Man is often solitary even when he’s with another person or in a crowd. Developing this theme at length is of great interest to me as I strive to perfect this notion in every canvas. While my sources of inspiration may be sounds, words, scents or colors, it is all connected to the individual, the human.”
I noticed the presence of iconic props in many of Noda’s paintings……a small umbrella, a black flute, flowers, wine bottles. Their relationship to the rest of the subjects is relatively small, yet they seem to speak in volumes larger than their size.
“Pink Rain” by Andrey Noda. Copyright © Andrey Noda. Used with Permission.
“No need to ascribe much significance to these items,” says Noda. “They only reflect the ordinary activities of daily life of my friends, close ones, or strangers. I try not to over-saturate the canvas with these items, striving instead for a ‘wide simplicity’.”
Andrey Noda is intense about his artwork, often spending long hours – and sometimes days on end – in his studio, and spending months at a time in artist residencies. How does he manage to balance that intensity and focus with his relationship with his family?
“It is a great joy that I do not have to compromise between the creative process and family life,” responds Noda. “I am not torn between these two significant parts of my life. I am simply lucky to have a wife with whom I share a mutual understanding as she is also an artist. Furthermore, for over twelve years now our home and our studio are one and the same – which provides a continuum.”
Andrey Noda’s native Kazakhstan is located between Russia and China. I asked the artist about his country’s relationship to its artists, especially since Noda has traveled widely for residencies and exhibitions in the United States and Europe. “In the USA, support for artists is more established,” says Noda. “There is a wider network of art residencies, art contests and educational institutions. Artists in Kazakhstan still have to order many of their art supplies from overseas. We do not have a single residency program nor one major international art exhibition. The greatest support from the government, however, consists of the fact that it does not interfere in the creative process of artists…….”
Artful relationships extend far beyond the painting or the sculpture and artists are always working within the flow of relationship – in their art, their careers and in their lives. and offering, through their work, insights into our own.
Artist Credits for the images included in this post:
Walk 22
Andrey Noda, Kazakhstan
Oil painting
Forget-Me-Nots
Andrey Noda, Kazakhstan
Oil painting
Pink Rain
Andrey Noda, Kazakhstan
Oil painting
Round Table
Andrey Noda, Kazakhstan
Oil painting
Black Flute
Andrey Noda, Kazakhstan
Oil painting
Andrey Noda’s artwork can be viewed at: Andrey Noda
The 365 Days Project
In 2012, Serena Kovalosky committed to writing an article a day for 365 days as an exploration into the lives of artists and the value of creative thinking in our society.
Experience the full evolution of the project! Click below to read the entire collection of articles.
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