I think about my work as transformation of cultural history into my private mythology. I use stitches as a metaphor. Their purpose is to bring out the sense of history. My master's thesis in history was about rituals and traditions.
We all have every day rituals without thinking much about them. Where I come from, stitching, crochet and embroidery is a ritual as much as craft. It’s mesmerizing. In a sense, it’s my ritual, my meditation. It is a physical process, a physical connection, and a way to break down distance between people. It is also a way of destroying the arrogance of a framed painting. I want my works to be touched, to have history, to be used. I want them to to preserve humanity of the material world.
Russian raw linen thread with rough hand stitches are sort of unprofessional restoration work seen on everything in Russia. I want to bring the sense of imperfection and impermanence. Because we live in age of technology, I want my prints and fibers look that they are actually made by a human hand, not by a machine.
Stitches appear on my paper as a metaphor. I don't want to make them beautiful intentionally (as in real life). It is something from the Russian reality. Sometimes they contribute to the design , sometimes they are ugly and disturbing as my fears. They represent me stitched to the different culture, which I am trying to understand more. They are threads that hold me here and there (my children here and my parents and friends-there). Now I look for the mythological in contemporary life around me.
The perception of nature also has been one of the main inspiration for my work. Faces of animals, chimeras help to create my personal calligraphy of folk idioms.