Nelli
Varavva

Artist statement

After moving to San Francisco from a Russian pagan town, I was amazed by inter-cultural, open-minded California. I love how people here express themselves, allow themselves to be different, and how they’re not afraid to show their emotions. Exploring people’s emotions and relationships became the main theme of my artwork. I capture unseeable interlacements between people. My goal is to share my fascination with different types of relationships people may form throughout their lives, by showing the true beauty of our differentialities.

When I paint, I’m in meditation, turning off the rational side of my brain. I’m not analyzing, but rather feeling, and then translating these feelings into colors, shapes, and lines.

In my motherland, people worship nature spirits: such as a water deity, sky deity, solar deity, and others. As a young girl, I was surrounded by the dense taiga forest, and by wild streams and peaceful lakes. These shaped me and my art.

After I tried watercolor in art school, it immediately become my favorite medium. I primarily paint with the “alla prima” technique, so I do not completely control the flow of water, but only give it a direction. I like to think about water as my co-creator, which allows for an element of beautiful randomness to my paintings.

I also like to experiment with salt. I like to think that watercolor is a mixture of water, salt, and pigments. Just like the ocean, or our body, or our tears, and blood. 

Bio

Nelli was born in the Russian pagan town, Yoshkar-Ola, in 1986.
She studied classical techniques of oil painting and art history at the competitive Yoshkar-Ola School of the Arts, earning the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts. 

Later, she received a Master's degree in Printing Art and Design from the Moscow State University of Printing Arts. At the university she studied drawing, painting, illustration, and traditional printmaking techniques: intaglio, lithography, and screen-printing.

Nelli worked successfully as an art director for several well-known Russian companies. There came a time when she sought new adventures, and she found her way to San Francisco, USA, where she continues to live.

Californian culture reignited Nelli's passion for fine art. Today, Nelli's paintings can be seen on the walls of American and international collectors. At 2018 and 2019, her mixed-media sculpture was installed at Burning Man.