Quest №4: You Don’t Sell The Hobby

The week is almost done, so that’s exactly the time for the new post. I have to say, every time I get to know people, I base my articles on, I partially lose the burning desire to write down their stories. So, only the wish to share weekly inspirational experience (well, and the course requirement) makes me start the new post. This week it was different; by “it” I actually mean not only the surprising willingness of mine to make the piece available as soon as possible, but the whole thing. It was my first interview with a person I did not know before, person, whose style is completely different from what I am used to and whose company opened up a whole new world to me.

We, my dear reader, will take it easy and proceed through the story slowly, starting with the moment I first wrote to Alexandr Soloviov. The beginning was not from the best ones, as, it turned out, I intruded the privacy of my “interview victim” on his birthday evening. I still wonder how lucky I was to manage it, and how nice of Alexandr it was not to turn me down.

So I made it to the room of the birthday guy clenching to the chocolate bar – the symbol of my good intentions and sort of present. I was welcomed by an interestingly looking guy who turned out to be Alexandr Soloviov himself, sophomore from Moldova, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Fine arts, concentrating mostly on acting.

After we got officially acquainted, we spend few minutes examining some of his drawings stuck on front door. I was surprised to know Alexandr did not study art anywhere but online tutorials on deviant art, his hand seemed to be firm and determined. And even though, I would not call the overall style of his works particularly “my type”, there was something catchy about it. When I had a look at other works I noticed that all of them were done in a specific bold, minimalistic and, I would say, intentionally distorted way. There were different types of drawings available: series of cartoons, logos, images combined with text and mere headlines or slogans.  Soon I realized that the message of some pictures simply does not reach me. Alexandr explained it with the specifics of punk culture, which might have made no sense to an outsider. 

Even though one would not be able to find a person less informed on the matters of punk rock subculture, poor guy resolved to explain me at least the basics. I can assert you, that the introductory course to the principles of punk subculture with Prof. Soloviov was quiet an informative experience. He started with the commonalities – appearance: hand-made garments, tattoos, piercings and hairstyle. Afterwards we moved to a more serious discussion on punk ideology, philosophy, classification. So basically what I’ve learned from the lesson is that punk is a diverse underground subculture, which repudiates any form of authoritarian control and externally imposed oppression. The general views of the group advocate individualism and freedom of expression, and therefore oppose racism, nationalism, sexism and stereotypical thinking.

Comes out, the very rebellious, non-conformist mood of punk culture attributes to the unique style of Alexander’s drawings and defines the sarcastic message of his visuals.  Alexandr himself gave some comments on the meaning he bestows in his art:

“I can’t say that all of them have one unique philosophy, so I’d say some comics are on the topics. When they (people) do something […] with what I don’t agree, I criticize them. And I think that criticizing them in a catchy strip is actually more efficient than writing long articles. Because this gets to more people, it’s easier to read a comic then an article.”

Interestingly, Alexander’s critique is caused not only by the public misunderstanding of the punk ideology, but also by the mass popularization of it. The increased number of various subgroups within the culture has also contributed to the fragmented apprehension of the main principles of punk. Thus, through drawing, Alexandr tries to connect to people, mock the absurdity of some trends and communicate his own views.

Manyfaced punk rock

The root of Alexandr’s surname is “solovey” which stand for nightingale in Russian. Maybr that’s the reason he depicy those birds in his works.

Yes, communication matters in this case! Alexandr created an official profile in one of the online social networks, where he uploads his works. The first post I could find dates back to March of this year while the number of subscribers is more than 1 500 which I consider a significant result. Alexandr said that the posts actually create a decent public buzz – people argue and respond to them:

Yeah, some people say that I’ll be beaten for my drawings, and these shows me that they (drawings) actually get to some people, because some people agree with me, some people change their mind. This is what really matters to me.

In addition, the social network of vkontakte provided a common ground for numerous joint projects. Alexandr drew album covers and emblems for several bands, as well as illustrations for blogs and symbols for firms. He has received offers to design tattoos, but as he said, he is not particularly interested in that, unless a suppliant is a really close friend of his.

One of Alexandr Soloviov’s logos. Inspired by Lonsdale

Naturally as I learnt that Alexandr has had an experience in the real-life industry, I wondered whether he would like to make his living with it. Astonishingly, he was absolutely against it. He explained that executing works in punk community means doing it for free and he had now desire to exploit his skill:

No, I don’t want to earn money with my hobby, because I don’t want to get profit from it. I want to keep my drawing hobby clear from other incentives then just my feelings and my own thought. I don’t want to commercialize it. I want it to be clean, only with what I feel, what I can bring in it.

He had a point. But come on, who said that having a non-artistic career prevents one from practicing favorite occupation. Be that as it may, but Alexandr (and me as well) is determined to continue drawing.

From Alexandr Soloviov personal Archive

Sewing firm’s symbol

Logo for a band

Alexandr Soloviov “Man Needs a Man”

I guess, I am almost done with the article because I told and shared everything I had to share. Well, almost everything. There is still couple of things I saved for last. First of all, I realized how much ignorant and biased I could be. All the tiny knowledge I had about punk culture was enough to make me feel uneasy about it, not before I got acquainted with Alexandr.  So, I would like to ask you not to judge people before personally knowing them. And the second one – you still cane wish Alexandr Soloviov belated Happy Birthday whenever you see him!

Please, don’t forget to check out the poll bellow 😉 That’s it for today, stay tuned.

Regards,

Tata

P.S. If you got interested in Alexandr Soloviov’s art find him on deviant art!

P.P.S. You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter

Alexandr Soloviov https://aubgartists.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/quest-%E2%84%964-you-dont-sell-the-hobby/

so that’s what we got in the end