“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see“
Edgar Degas
Olga Radzetskaya – is a sand artist, sand animator from Minsk, Belarus. She puts on sand performances from 2013. She participated in International Sand Animation Festivals in the Ukraine, Russia and in Germany. Olga is a member of Russian Sand Therapy Association, а member of the jury of the International festival of sand animation “Touch” 2016, 2017, being also the founder and the trainer in the first sand art studio in Minsk.
“Sand art is a new trend, it’s has just started to develop but it’s already obvious that it has a high potential and a real Artist is looking for his own way in art – he is making progress and creates his own technique and style. And this kind of art is not being taught at the university or academy. This fact however has a very important positive aspect – probably not studying at the university how you HAVE to draw, one is drawing the way he/she FEELs. Isn’t it a real art?
Sometimes the audience brings up the question, rather a statement:” You are an artist, that’s why you can draw with sand as well” I actually do not have any special artistic education.“
“I certainly refer to special literature, take part in art and academic drawing workshops, but I always had a feeling “how it really has to be”. I am working on the sand story till the moment I feel absolute satisfaction from what I see. Sand is a powerful material for art, it can deal with any subject, the main purpose is to find the very core of this subject by means of characters, resemblance and senses putting heart and soul into creation of a sand story”.
“It’s a great pleasure when after the performance people show their appreciation, share new emotions, sometimes even cry after the performance, which means that it works! I could touch their hearts and souls. I am lucky with the customers – they all have interesting stories and sometimes absolutely unknown themes, so I have to study carefully literature, history. This is what I especially like about my job: I keep acquiring knowledge in different spheres”.
The technical part of a sand performance is quite simple: illuminated glass table with the camera above transmitting the slightest movement of an artist hand with sand on a big screen. But it’s an external simplicity. Gentle motion of the hand of a master is an illusion. In reality an artist has to develop thoroughly a storyline, build a composition, search new techniques and unusual transformations before each performance.
That is why sometimes 2 or even 3 weeks are necessary to find information, prepare and rehearse a 15-minute- performance, practicing each element dozens of times. Each movement has to be extremely precise due to the fact that sand is not a simple material. Each time it spreads differently, and the artist has to foresee all possible “surprises” because any image appears and disappears on close inspection of the audience, none of uncertain movements remains unnoticed; one false step and the picture is ruined and the magic is gone.
It’s worth mentioning that live performance of a sand master makes an overwhelmingly more powerful impression on the audience than a video in the internet. Each visitor will find in a sand story something personal, close to his heart, because every person associates the action on the screen with the life experience, emotions and events – he even finds new senses of the images created by the artist. This is what is called a “huge power of the art”!
Except from the sand art, Olga is painting pictures.
“I adore oil painting – one more infatuating aspect. Once you’ve learned to understand it, you can create amazing things. But this is a different story… “