"Pod kluch", №4(10) december 2000

Changeability of the matter
Bella Baikova makes textile pictures in "quilting" technique, stitching together the parts of the future masterpiece by sewing machine. This technique is not the patch work known to us by grandmother's counterpanes, it is a much more exquisite and complicated technology. By selecting, when shopping, the textiles of most delicate shades, changing the colouring and having other exclusive specificity, Bella achieves an unusually rich palette able to convey the most subtle, border-line state of soul, illusory in its intangibility and changeability.
Fabric instead of paint
- I though before that I had invented that "bicycle" myself. But I found that at the time I took to it some other people undertook it as well. The thing is that earlier we had nothing but wool and cotton. But now new luxurious textiles are accessible everywhere - and you can not pass them by. You start "thinking" in terms of them if you are a colour-sensitive person.
A textile is better than a dye. I can take any modern, recently-developed cloth having the wanted hue. As far as I use taffeta fabrics in which the warp and the weft are of different colour, the composition "plays" different colours. Only impressionists were able to apply a dye so that it shimmered.
Some people come and watch the scene like cats watching a TV screen: "Well, everyone earns in a different way..." Some people feel the colour. Though some people do not see the colour, but they want to have a composition for themselves, as this is customary now - to have pieces of art at home.
One need not invent the beauty
When I get up in the morning to see the child to school, sometimes I see a picture: the Moon has not yet gone, but the Sun is already rising - a dimcrimson sphere. This Sun is, so to say, indifferent to the Earth's problems of the moment. It is morning already, but it is still night, and there are two different kinds of lighting at the same time. This state lasts for not more than two or three minutes. But if you catch it you feel inexpressible joy, some incomprehensible euphoria. It is a pure, motiveless happiness - not caused by love or travel or money. Beauty can be explained, beauty is a specific canon, but one can not explain charm. This is what I wanted to express.
The story with the "Summer Garden" was as follows: I was strolling along the "Summer Garden" in the evening, when the Sun was setting. Sometimes a xylophonist is playing there. I felt a really strange state of emotions. Everything was mysterious; one sculpture was decorated with half-dead roses. The music reminded of the sound of balls jumping down the steps as if in delayed action. All that matched so well ... I have some friends who need to smell the weed to be able to paint something. As to me, I just walk along the street and never stop wondering at how wonderful life is. In general I am a mentally healthy person: it is sufficient for me, to get inspiration, to seal the cans when preserving cucumbers.
About the client who "truly saw the angel"
- Once I was approached by a client, when I was making stained-glass windows for the Catholic church. In his apartment he had a small window between the lavatory and the corridor, typically for the architecture of the old housing stock. He, being a zealous Catholic, wanted to place a crucifix there. The abbot said: "Well, so pious he is - can not relieve himself without the crucifix!" But it would be a sin to place a cross there, so we decided to look for a compromise. We offered some hearts, candles, bells to him - something more cheerful (the Catholics like this theme). I edged the window glass with this ornamentation, and he liked it very much. He said: "This is cute, leave it. But still I need to have a crucifix in the centre." Actually, I had to avoid making a crucifix as the abbot was coming to see that person from time to time, and I did not want to annoy his feelings ... Then I suggested that it could be an angel looking through the frozen window, his face to be lit with candles from below - this was a good option without the crucifix. Then the client told me that he liked everything, including the gorgeous candles with hearts, but still he wanted a crucifix, and moreover, the angel should be more beautiful. The abbot said to that: "One might think that he happened to see the angel as it is". I communicated with that client not personally, but through a mediator, I used to write messages to him and convey them on floppy disks. He was a graduate of a school of arts, so he was inclined to find faults with me. He used to write such pearls to me! When I drew the angel he wrote: "The wings could be reduced. And we should work over the nimbus." My orders of Scriptural nature, like stained-glass windows for the church, were easier than that case. I was sitting, thinking. Then I took the "Vogue" magazine - at that time Nadya Auerman was considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world. The fable was finally as follows: an angel with Nadya Auerman's face was standing, leaning on the cross like on the spade. The customer was satisfied; he said, though, that the angel's face could be made even more beautiful. Nadya was not his choice - probably he needed the truly heavenly beauty ... But he got the cross and was able to relieve himself with a peaceful conscience...
To sweat or not to sweat?
- I do not belong to those who "create imperishable masterpieces within two hours" : they go all out and feel wonderful. I need an "epic work". I like to drag the work out in a lengthy manner. Well, people are different - we have Chekhov and we have Tolstoy. It is extremely difficult to keep the inspiration for four months, therefore I have to set everything out based on the law of perspective. This work gives the sensation of warmth; perhaps it was for this reason that I had to try to keep the same mood for four months, retaining the sensation I wanted to convey.

Mila Tsvinkau.