Oksana Dolgopyatova is an emotional storyteller. Her stories are always about love. At first sight, she falls in love with cities and educational institutions, with materials and brands. Life, like a series of loves, brings clients to it, for whom the emotions reflected in the project are just as valuable. It is not for nothing that Oksana calls her own style "emotional eclecticism".
Oksana boldly works with color. Her projects include coral, cornflower, grass green and bourgeois almandine. Therefore, the choice of black color for our interview was a complete surprise for her.
Black and white photos
My creative development began from the fetal period. My mother really wanted me to draw. His father had artistic talent, and his grandfather was a self-taught artist. In my grandmother's house in a village near Chernigov, the walls were covered with paintings. My mother did not know how to draw at all, but she forced herself: she bought paints, pencils and paper. She drew throughout her pregnancy to influence me. It worked!
Alise apartment, Kyiv. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
Once upon a time, my mother was engaged in sewing, worked at the House of Fashion in Dushanbe, where she had a great future. Then my dad appeared in her life and adjusted all the plans. When I came to my grandmother in Tajikistan, I came to work at her sewing shop. I even had a small machine on which I sewed clothes for dolls.
See also: Drive into the paint with SADOLIN. Olga Bohdanova and her green
My childhood was spent in garrisons and military towns in Moldova, Poland and Ukraine. Dad is a military pilot. My first drawing class was in Moldova. They took me there from the age of seven, and I was five. My already outstanding height and intelligence helped: she said I was seven, and they took me. Later, when we lived in Poland, not far from Szczecin, a drama group appeared in my life. It was like this: the production is mine, I make the scenery, and I also play one of the roles.
Black clay
I finished school in Myrhorod. At that time it was prestigious to study as lawyers and economists. All of my classmates scattered for these specialties. They were also preparing me for going somewhere there, and also for foreign languages just in case. I am grateful to my parents that they did not succumb to this hype and asked what I wanted. I wanted to be an actress or a fashion designer.
My parents suggested that I study for a few years at a technical school to make sure that the artistic path is right for me. I always knew how to draw and I wondered why I had to learn it additionally. Nevertheless, she entered the second year of the ceramic technical school. At first, ceramics did not inspire me. But everything changed when we were taken to Opishnia to see large-scale ceramic sculptures. I fell in love there! Learning became interesting, I decided to become a sculptor. Sit in the workshop, hands in turpentine, hair in slicker! I loved the whole romance.
Rybalsky apartment, Kyiv. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
I studied well, and already in six months I started the first part-time jobs. She painted walls in kindergartens, schools, and hospitals. After a large-scale panel with mosaic elements on the wall of the new school, I was transferred to free education.
The rector of the Lviv National Academy of Arts was present at the defense of my red diploma. He said that they would accept me without exams, I would only have to pass the Ukrainian language. I'm going to study in Lviv! My dad and I collected all my works, the sculptures were packed in boxes. On the way, we stopped by for a few days to walk around Kyiv. There, I wanted to go to the Kyiv Art Academy, just to have a look. When she found herself in this building on Smirnov-Lastochkina Street (now — Voznesensky Uzviz. — Ed. note) — everything turned upside down. Lviv was cancelled, I decided to stay in Kyiv to study graphic design.
Hot asphalt
The entrance exams lasted a month, I was accommodated in a dormitory. There I got to know the fifth-year students and realized that I definitely want to stay here. There was not enough money to live on, but I am an artist and used to working part-time. She decided to find a temporary job in Kyiv. At the technical school, we studied all the large enterprises of the industry, so I knew that there was a ceramics factory in Kyiv. And I am a ceramist with a red diploma! Of course, they are needed at the factory. I opened the paper map and found out that the ceramics factory is very close by - in Podil.
See also: Drive into the paint with SADOLIN. Loft Buro and their red
I argued for a long time with a woman in the aisle who did not want to let me through. A storekeeper ran past several times. In the end, he asked what I was doing here and took me to the management. "What ceramics? We have a factory here, we make bricks, stoves, fireplaces. Do you at least know the size of the brick?" the director poked me. I was upset and wanted to leave, when he remembered something and called out to me: "Do you know the Petrykiv painting?" - "Of course I know! I'm an artist, I have a degree."
That's how I found a job: I had to create a sketch of a Petrikovsky mural for President Kuchma's stove. The lines burned, and their staff artist drank. Payment — 50 hryvnias. It was a considerable amount for an applicant.
Oksana Dolgopyatova in Boulevard F apartment. Photo: Iryna Kalamurza
I return to the dormitory, stretch the Whatman on the stretcher and prepare a sketch of the petri dish. A night of work - and in the morning I'm already at the factory with several Whatmans. There was a drawing, surveys, axonometry, perspective — everything, as in a thesis. The manager was shocked by such a scale and paid much more than agreed.
I did not enter the academy on the budget. The competition was huge, it was necessary to prepare carefully with local teachers. I decided that I will do so next year, and in the meantime I will return to Myrhorod and work as a ceramic artist at a local factory. They were already waiting for me there.
Two days after my return, the boss from Kyiv called me. "Do you know how to restore? Baroque-rococo — that's all?". Of course, I answered that I could. It was an exaggeration, but I always answered "yes" and was convinced that even if I didn't know something, I would learn in the process.
The director told me to come with things. At that moment, I realized that life was successful - I have a job waiting for me in Kyiv!
It turned out that the director ordered ten portals for fireplaces from China. The portals were concrete, the decorative details were reflected in the road. It was necessary to restore them. I didn't know how.
It was summer, all my friends from the art academy dormitory had left. For days I sat alone in a large shop of a brick factory. She figured out how to attach plaster parts: she screwed pieces of wire and screws into the concrete. The fingers were scraped to the point of blood. I made only one and a half fireplaces in a month. There was enough money for a bagel with kefir and coffee and a cigarette.
Coal and ash
Once an architect, who worked there at the factory at the company "Stoves and Fireplaces", came to the workshop. He asked who I was, and then he got angry: what does an artist do in the workshop, if he himself has an insurmountable mountain of work?!
Apartment Andriyvsky. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
So I moved to work in the office. And I didn't even have normal office clothes, I got used to the workshop and construction and dressed like a hippie. I was completely delighted to have my own desk, a study, where there was a large can of instant coffee, a kettle and a bottle of cognac. Across from me sat a real architect with permanent unshaven hair and tousled hair. For whole days he looked at the giant monitor, smoked and sometimes muttered something.
I drew sketches by hand. Then I thought that I could draw at least with a stick on the sand, at least with chalk on the wall, at least with lipstick on a napkin. And what about your computer when it is not at hand at the right moment? However, when the era of editing began, it turned out that redrawing detailed sketches ten times was not an option. I was given an old computer, and the first thing I learned after turning it on was 3D Max. I didn't have e-mail or Word, only graphics.
Lines on paper
The magic of my new job was that I could invent something and explain it with some tools, while other people were already implementing it. Before, I always thought in terms of material and embodied my own ideas in ceramics, plaster or plasticine.
Things in the company were going well, in some time we turned around so much that, in addition to fireplaces, I designed recreation areas, gazebos, and wine rooms. At the same time, I graduated from the institute with a specialty in "Environmental Design". The first hacks appeared: I helped make interiors in "modern style".
Apartment Andriyvsky. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
It became clear that everything comes together with the design. After five years of work, I left "Stoves and Fireplaces", and then I also took a colleague with me - my good friend Volodya Musienko. The company we created was called "Paper Will Endure". It was a nickname given to me by craftsmen and engineers who implemented my projects.
See also: Drive into the paint with Sadolin. Emil Dervish and ultramarine
We worked a lot, made classic and pseudo-classical interiors with an area of 500 square meters or more: houses, offices, restaurants, suburban complexes. Projects were monotonous, creativity and non-standard ideas were never approved. At a certain point, I realized that this conveyor does not bring satisfaction.
Black truffle
At the beginning of my career, I worked with classic interiors in the beige-brown range. A breath of fresh air was the project of a country house in the style of "Provence" - the project that started my love for color.
The client bought vintage furniture in France, and I instantly fell in love with it and this project. She drew a cartoon interior in faded shades of blue. He was perfect, too perfect. The client delicately offered to play with the color. I didn't sleep for several nights, I drew another version: it already had emerald, purple, and yellow. The client again responded well, but asked me to meet with her friend to discuss the details. The friend turned out to be the famous fashion designer Victoria Gres.
Apartment Boulevard F. Photo: Andrii Bezuglov
She only said a few phrases to me. When I returned home, I was sobbing, I wanted to give up the project and leave the profession. The designer advised me to remove the extra details and offered to put a lemon table in my impeccably selected interior. I remember how my colleagues and I were indignant when we discussed it in the smoking room. Acid table in "Provence"! At the same time, I felt that there was some important meaning in this advice. In order to understand it, it was necessary to reach a new level, and this is difficult.
The consequence of this torture was my evolution as a designer. From the ideal "Provence", which does not really exist, the interior turned into a living, breathing space. Impeccability had to be destroyed in order for character to emerge.
Black stripe
I left the company "Papier Terpit", and after that there was a period of burnout. I seriously decided that interior design is not for me. It was necessary to rest and think about where to move next. I earned a living with visualizations, which I did for former classmates and colleagues.
About six months into this freelance work, I received a call from a former customer from Stoves and Fireplaces. She offered me to make the interior of an apartment for her friend. I refused several times - I didn't want to dive into it again, but she persuaded me.
Apartment Boulevard F. Photo: Andrii Bezuglov
I went to a meeting at the object. It was an apartment of 90 square meters, and I have never worked with such small spaces before. When we met the customer, I realized that I am not leaving the profession yet. This woman with red curls, incredible energy and love of life won me over. For the first time, I managed private construction, selected materials, furniture, lighting and approved everything directly with the client. It seemed that this was a completely different profession, although I used the same schools as before. I had no idea that there were such clients. In this project, there was a lemon sofa, plum-colored textile wallpaper, blue-blue tiles and bright coral armchairs on the balcony. For 2010, it is quite bold.
Infinity
How to make an expressive interior with color is clear. And how to create a bold interior in monochrome? This is a new level that I am entering now. Today I am interested in making monochrome interiors. Sometimes they have an accent of color, but it is not much.
Black is quite a bold color, you have to dare. For the first time, I painted a black wall in the office in "Stoves and Fireplaces". Our small office had expanded, they were renovating, and I insisted that the wall next to my desk be black.
Then, for one of my rented apartments, I bought a large black chandelier, which shocked my mother.
Almadine project. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
I came up with the black bedroom for the Alise project instantly, but I didn't show it to the clients right away. I was waiting for them to return from their trip and we could meet face to face. I didn't want to send them a bold decision just like that, without explanation. But time passed, it was impossible to pull, and I had to send them a visualization. Then there was a bad connection, I never got their answer and I was terribly nervous. But my precious clients called as soon as the connection was restored: "Let's do it!". I also added a black bathroom to the joys.
For many people, black is an uncomfortable and unfriendly color. I have other associations. Black is infinity. It is different and infinitely plastic. It behaves differently in mass and in details. Black is the background. For a person, for a still life, for a photograph or painting. It takes on other colors, but does not reflect them like white, but gives depth. If any color is concentrated and made as saturated as possible, it will appear black.
See also: Rina Lovko and her orange. Drive into the paint with SADOLIN
In the project of an apartment on Andriyivskyi Uzvoz, we balanced the black with soulful objects. In general, there is a special atmosphere: from the street you can hear the hum of old Podol, in the windows everywhere you look - the baths of churches. In this interior, black is not about depression or courage, it is about coziness there.
Black is a practical and impractical color at the same time. On the black floor you can see every lint, dust or wool. But from the designer's point of view, black is functional. Black details give the interior rhythm, graphics, they make the space integral.
Little black dress
I like to mix it up. The mix gives uniqueness. You can mix something luxurious with something simple and honest, something personal from the past life of customers, something vintage from a design gallery, brands from France, Italy, Denmark, Ukraine. I like the unpredictability of the plot.
My clients are usually people who think outside the box. They don't want one style, but many things at once. My task is to harmoniously mix and build this scenario.
An important condition for me is live contact with the client. I do not communicate with representatives or representatives of representatives. I need client time and face-to-face communication.
Oksana Dolgopyatova. Photo: Oleksiy Kuchma
Sometimes, if I am tired or feeling burnt out, I ask for an additional meeting with the client. We can talk about general topics, just sit next to each other, exchange thoughts and feelings. It's a charge for me to come up with something new for these clients. Ideas are born from our interaction. My clients are those for whom it is important that the designer lives their project and immerses themselves in it completely.
It is important to remember that the project is not flowers and butterflies, a number of difficulties await us. There are two stages of desperation in every construction. One is at the beginning, when the first steps are taken and the realization of the amount of work that lies ahead comes. The second period is closer to completion, when construction is raging, money is being invested, and visual changes are barely visible. During these periods, it is difficult for both clients and me, I worry no less. This is where connection, mutual trust and moral support are important.
The main excitement in the profession is that all people are different, and their focus is on different things. For someone, the sound when you put a cup on the table is important, for someone, black details are unacceptable. Someone is ready to overpay for a special thing, while another does not need the same thing for nothing. It is an incredible pleasure for me to explore this difference.
"Careful, painted!" or the story of one fakapu
We were working on a project - an apartment for sale. The interior is almost entirely monochrome — black and white. But at some point, the client and I decided that it was necessary to add brightness to the bedroom. This was already the second joint project for us. The customer immediately approved the acid raspberry dilutions on the wall and the green grass curtains. Against this background stood a black wrought-iron bed and black graphic lamps. In a small room, all these colors mixed and reflected each other.
"Fourteenth" apartment, Kyiv. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
Such solutions work when you know the client, and he is ready for such courage. However, an apartment for sale is a different story. For half a year, the apartment was waiting for its desperadoes. The client and I encouraged each other that people just don't understand. And later they decided that it was enough to be stubborn, and repainted the wall in white.
Text: Nadiya Sheykina
