1. What personality traits help an artist to make art, and which ones hinder?

Curiosity, sense of humor, inner freedom and intellect help the artist to engage in creativity. Laziness and fear interfere.

2. What is your favorite activity besides art?

I enjoy traveling a lot. Now I'm studying to be a pilot — I like the clarity and rigor that exists in aviation. I go to museums a lot, I love painting. Fast cars. I like Ancient Greece, I watch and read a lot about it.

3. Did you have a situation in your life that influenced your creativity positively/negatively? Or has it changed the way you think about what you do?

Departure from Russia strongly influenced my work. When I lived in Russia, the main theme of my work was freedom, or rather, its lack. Now, living in Europe, I choose the theme of beauty. I focus on making beautiful things.

4. Who would you like to talk to from the personalities who have ever lived or are living now? Why with this person?

I would like to talk to Bernini — just to make sure he was a man and not an alien. Also with Caravaggio about «Medusa Gorgon» — I have some technical questions for him. And with Alexander Rastorguev, just to warn him not to go to the Central African Republic. I miss him very much.

5. How does your art change the world, the cultural component, yourself?

I would like to believe that my work makes the world kinder and more beautiful.

6. What do you think about the future of contemporary art?

Modern art has the same future as the present, for example, the art of the Renaissance. Art historians will grind bones, collectors will buy and decorate their mansions, and ordinary people will think: “Oh, there was a time when real artists created, and not these impostors». But then, of course, everything will be forgotten and turned into dust.

7. What do you think about the rapidly growing NFT? Are you planning to enter this niche?

It seems to me that the role of NFT is overestimated, but I am also experimenting.

8. What is the most valuable thing for you (in the world, in life, in creativity)?

Freedom and knowledge.