Paintress Victoria Parhomenko. Thousand names of one strong woman.
09 декабря 2014
After TV program «Glory minute» our
country heard about her, she conquered the audience with her pictures
with sand and iron. Talented artist always leaves prints of the nature of strong,
restive woman with fine appreciacion (no matter, if she takes brush, sand, iron
or clay). There might be made films about life path of Victoria, about heroine of
our narrative, but only she knows, what does it mean, when you lose and find
new strength to move forward. On this way she helps others, kids and adults and
she discovers unique talent of the artist in herself.
«My name is Victoria Parhomenko, my mom calls me dear daughter, Viculya, love, baby. My children call me mom. My students call me Victoria Victorovna. There are people that don’t like me and they call me bitch, stinker, anyhow. Someone would call me a star. Someone would call me mediocrity. By my essence isn’t changed because of that. My hair doesn’t get longer because of that, my legs don’t become shorter, my right and left hemispheres don’t switch places. Despite that I have thousand names».
The story of our guest happened 20 years ago. Life path
of Victoria Parhomenko reminds blind walk along impassable ground. Like in medieval
fairy tales, the lady got into boondocks and got lost in the covert and she is
desperately trying to break loose. The fight with fate that lasted many years
finished with the victory of our heroine. But let’s talk about everything in
order.
At the beginning of 2000 misfortunes were flooding the
lady. Fire in her flat, depression, troubles with husband, poverty – during some
years she had to overcome through all these. The most horrible thing that haunted
her was inability to affect the situation. She tried to hide from depression in
her creativity. But troubles didn’t stop haunting her. Endless removals, husband’s
drunkness, disasters, poverty and depression again. She lived for some time in the
Chelyabinsk region, then she moved to Anapa, then from hospital in Anapa she
ran to Kurgan, where her mother lived. There Victoria started to earn some money
for medical treatment of her daughter that was suffering from cerebral palsy.
«Someone should
have fed family. I understood immediately that I wasn’t able to deal with real
estate, as I had to do it before. I used to catch on everything that was possible.
I opened network company and quickly got involved into this area, received about
50 partners at first days. But after some months I understood that I wanted to
do something else».
Then
Victoria saw at first time video about Ilana Yahav, Israeli sand painter. Pieces
of Ilana turned life of Victoria upside down. She was astonished that sand
could be a material for painting! And it doesn’t depend on what you are
painting, it depends on the painter. Victoria set a goal to learn sand painting.
She decided to practice it independently, as tuition was expensive, plus she had had to
leave her kids and move to Peter. She shared her ideas regarding painting with
her family, soon they helped her to make the first table for painting.
«My first table looked like a box or coffin. Its length was 1 meter, depth 65 centimeters. We gathered some sand, fried it and I tried to paint with it at first time».
Long trainings started. Every morning she used to wake
up at six AM and she went to her godson’s place that had the table. Every day Victoria
went 12,5 km to reach her relatives’ place. She got there by foot in order to save
money.
«I used
to draw one hour till the table became hot; my godson shoot it; then we watched
together all that video. Then, in the midnight we went some blocks by foot to
my friend’s place. We always showed her the last videos. She criticized my
work, she told that was horrible and I could do better. At 2-3 o’clock in the
morning I got home, slept a bit and then again went to train».
Victoria realized at her birthday that she was ready
to get to scene and show her art to audience. She managed to rent a space in a
café with big TV, she printed tickets and gathered people.
«It was
difficult to explain what I was going to do. The closest people came to my
first program, about 35 people. That was the scariest audience: my mom, kids and
those, who could say that it was “not my
thing”.
Victoria was presenting her program non-stop. When she
finished, people were crying, gifting flowers, congratulating with happy
birthday and first triumph. But when she went backstage, she cried, as she
understood that all her plans were shattered. She couldn’t earn money via painting
to cure her daughter. Victoria continued what she had started, she tried to
rent new places, she performed with musicians. The amount of audience was increasing. Debut performance
in front of huge hall brought her first 5 000 rubles. TV and mass media
started covering her, she became recognizable…
«Then
suddenly I moved to Anapa, left kids with my mom. I wanted to prove myself that
I would return here as a different person (transformed). When I came here, I
understood that I had to start from scratch here, not even from scratch, but from
minus. I didn’t know anyone here. I started drinking alcohol».
Introduction
with one woman helped Victoria, this woman helped her to settle in Anapa. With
the help of this madam Victoria started arranging concerts again, giving shows
and making living. She learnt how to draw with iron and this art she used when
she got to “Glory minute”. After some time one friend offered Victoria to open
personal studio in Anapa. Victoria agreed, but her partner disappeared after the opening. Victoria relied on her and first 7-8 months were
extremely difficult to handle alone. She had to gather master-classes from internet,
to experiment so that to be able to offer something new for her students.
в студии
Today in the art-studio PROSPERE tens of people are
studying. There are pre-school children, pupils and pensioners, Victoria can teach
anyone. After challenging way towards success our painter changed in a big way her attitude towards art,
creativity and herself.
«I feel
myself Jewish. It comes with ages, when you start feeling your national
identity. I love Hebrew, I get real pleasure when people speak Yiddish. I love Jewish holidays.
Deep down
I feel that I belong to Jewish culture. Moreover, I am a real Jewish mummy. I
am convinced that there are 2 types of kids: strange and genius. I always say
to my kids: “you are the best, you can do more”.
Victoria treats her kids and herself with love. She is
convinced that when you start loving yourself truly, other people also start
loving you. Even the quality of love changes.
«I love
things that I create. God also loves, what he creates. For example, I was making
this model form, I admire it, I love it, I try to make it better more and more.
And, imagine, that this form will tell me: “I don’t like the way you created
me”. What should I do, if it starts complaining? I will just get rid of it. I will sell it,
throw out,
break.
God
created and thought me the way I am – exactly the way I am. Is there any meaning
to be unhappy with appearance? The only maximum I can do is to take care of
what I have. My task is to stay the way I am so that I could feel pleasure from
myself, my appearance, work and internal state. Then people will feel towards
you the same thing».
Despite these words, Victoria is quite critical about herself.
She thinks that you always should make new goals and try to achieve them by all
costs.
«I haven’t
done so many things yet, I have many goals. I have started trying myself as a
designer and decorator. I want to make new projects with sand. I want to do
many things in the studio. Every evening before going to sleep I think over new
ideas. I am satisfied with self-fulfillment at 2-2,5 grades, if the maximum is
5. Every second I learn something. And
how can I fulfill myself, when I have to live so many years? I haven’t achieved
harmony yet. Harmony means when you receive pleasure from what you do and you
are paid for that. I haven’t achieved harmony, I have only touched it. But now
I know what I want».
Victoria follows 3 main principles to achieve goals: don’t
believe, don’t be afraid, don’t ask. The most important thing is not to believe
in God, but to know definitely that he exists and loves you.
«Don’t
believe those one, who will tell you that your business isn’t necessary for
you. Don’t be afraid, if you fail to do or you do something you want. Don’t ask
the God about wonder, as only you can stand and act, otherwise no results. Once
I thought: my name is Victoria Parhomenko, my mom calls me dear daughter, Viculya,
love, baby. My children call me mom. My students call me Victoria Victorovna.
There are people that don’t like me and they call me bitch, stinker, anyhow.
Someone would call me a star. Someone would call me mediocrity. By my essence doesn’t
change because of that. The same thing with God. Someone calls him Allah, someone calls him Adonoy, someone –
Jesus, someone – Krishna. But the essence doesn’t change. I know definitely
that he exists, he loves me and he proves his love».
© Gayanat project, 2014
