After only being in Russia for about a week my friend and I had the ever so common “What am I doing here….in Russia?” crisis. It took coming here to realize I don’t think I want to do anything with Russian down the road. I don’t know if it’s because learning the language fluently would take years or if it’s because I don’t have enough love for the culture to live here indefinitely. But this doesn’t mean I don’t want to make the most of the experience while I’m here.
I was a bit hesitant to admit this to my advisor, but I told her, “It’s the latter, I want to have the study abroad experience-a different culture, gain some independence, try something new.” Her response? “That’s great because then everything else will just be icing on the cake.”
She asked me if I would be interested in a printmaking course taught in Russian. I immediately laughed it off. I have absolutely no artistic ability whatsoever. To give you an idea, when I showed my friend over Skype the self-portraits I had to make for homework she actually cried from laughter and demanded that I let her have one (thanks, Rach.) But my advisor said the teachers often like students with limited artistic talent. The printmaking course would round out my three Russian language courses and a history class on Russia and English in the context of international security- taught in English. So I said sure, I’ll give it a shot.
It was not until our second class when we were able to dive in and try it out. Unfortunately because the class is taught in Russian I’m not always sure of the actual terms in English but I’ll do my best. We have been doing linocut printmaking. We first draw our pictures onto a piece of linoleum. Then we cut out wherever we have drawn using a special knife or v-shaped tool. Afterwards you cover the entire sheet of linoleum with black ink using a roller, but wherever has been cut out will be left white because of the indentations or carved areas.
Knowing my artistic abilities (or more appropriately my inabilities), I decided to keep it simple for my first print. I was so nervous and my friend just kept telling me to calm down, everything would be fine, and it’s not that hard (yeah, cause you’re an art minor, Stephanie.) Not wanting to have to cut out too much white, I made a house in the moonlight with one window lit and a silhouette of a person looking out.
As one of the teaching assistants came around to help us he sort of stopped at my workspace and gave me a puzzled look and made many suggestions as to how to make it better. Mind you, this was before and after he looked at the work on either side of me and all he had to say was “good job!” So he told me maybe I could fix this, fix that, and maybe even write a word to help identify the story I was trying to tell. My picture was actually the simplest story ever…if I need a word to describe it then I am doomed. I was already so out of my comfort zone with the art that the directions in Russian weren’t helping any. Finally he came over to correct how I was holding the tool. The minute I changed how I was holding it I cut my hand. I felt myself get really flustered and I could feel the tears coming, but I knew once I started crying I would never stop. I also didn’t really need to be known as the girl who cried during art class. So I quickly got up, drank some tea, ate some cookies, and relaxed for a while.
Finally once I felt collected I went back and finished prepping my print. I was the first one to finish because I had the simplest design so I just decided to give it a shot. As I pulled off the paper from my print I was actually pleasantly surprised with the results. I even got an English “Super!” from the teacher! I was so relieved that I treated myself to another cookie. I’ve realized that I won’t ever be at the top of the class. Art just isn’t my thing. But it’s important every once in awhile to try something new, step outside of your comfort box, maybe even set yourself up for failure once or twice. We don’t always have to be great at everything. It can often be much more rewarding to be passable at something that is difficult, than succeed at something that is easy.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures right now of my prints, but I hope to maybe make a post at the end of the semester of some of the work I’ve done (don’t get too excited.) For now, I’ll just post some really pretty places around the city……
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| Nevsky Prospect at Night |
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| Kazansky Cathedral |
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| St. Isaac's Cathedral |
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| St. Isaac's at night. |
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| Neva River |
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