INIMITABLE MINIATURES BY SALAVAT FIDAI: “MY ART IS A CHALLENGE TO MYSELF AND MY ABILITIES…”

SALAVAT FIDAI

ART

INIMITABLE MINIATURES BY SALAVAT FIDAI: “MY ART IS A CHALLENGE TO MYSELF AND MY ABILITIES…”

Text: Kate Max

Photo credit: Salavat Fidai

September 16 2023

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Text: Kate Max

Photo credit: Salavat Fidai

September 16 2023

SHARE ARTICLE

This amazing artist once was not afraid to leave a prestigious job and completely turn his life around. He came, or rather to say, returned to art through digital photography, creating a whole series of unusual still lifes. Then he experimented with painting and began to create miniature paintings on matchboxes, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and rice grains. And then he found something that forever determined his creative destiny – he began to create amazing miniatures on the tips of pencils.

The name of this incredibly talented person is Salavat Fidai. And in today’s interview we will talk about his unique art and about the amazing world of micro sculptures that he has created.

Your parents are artists and you grew up in a creative atmosphere, studying at an art gymnasium. However, you did not follow in your parent's footsteps after school. Why didn't you make a choice in favor of creativity? Do you regret the missed opportunities? And how did this experience, which was far from creativity, influence your creative destiny?

At the end of the 90s, there were no social networks and such diverse ways to promote art online. The artist’s work did not promise a constant high income. My parents thought that becoming a professional artist was not the best idea. That’s why I didn’t become an artist like my parents, but decided to study to be a lawyer. A lawyer is a more prestigious and highly paid profession. I don’t regret it. I don’t see the point in regretting the past, about what has already happened. Yes, I have gained a lot of experience in communicating with people, learned how to manage employees, communicate, negotiate, learned how to sell goods and much more. I have lived an interesting and varied life and gained a lot of experience. Sometimes you can’t know how your experience and new knowledge will be useful in the future. Perhaps all this did not directly help me to become an artist, but I learned to cope with difficult tasks on my own. This is a difficult question. It is difficult for me to give an exact answer.

Your story is an example of how one day you can have the courage to leave a high-paying job that no longer brings pleasure and choose what you like - creativity. How did you come to the realization that it was time to change something? What was your path to your dream job?

This has been accumulating for many years. The first reason was the usual office burnout. Monotonous boring office work exhausts and takes all the energy. The second reason is that I have attended many courses and training on personal self-development, a lot of classes to improve the skills of a manager, and others. In these classes, I realized that this is not my vocation and this is not what I would like to do all my life. When you were born an Artist, then one day you will no longer be able not to be an artist, you will not be able to ignore the call of your soul. One day I realized that I had to change my life and find an occupation that would satisfy me, and find my own business that would delight me every day. I had to find my path and my vocation. As I told you at TEDx, I devoted about a year to finding myself and my vocation. I read a lot, studied different ways of “how to find yourself”, meditated, talked with a therapist and with my coach manager. In the course of my search, I answered three questions: 1) What did you most enjoy doing in early childhood? 2) What would you like to do if you didn’t need money? 3) What do you know how to do better than other people in your environment? What is your main talent? The answer to all three questions was the same: drawing, (doing creative work, creating art objects).

Your creative journey began with experiments in digital photography, with creative photos of still lifes with vegetables and fruits, which were included in the series "The Quiet Life of Things". Why did you choose such an unusual concept? And isn't there a desire to continue the series of these photos?

I like to find signs of a person in objects. Many things, objects, vegetables, fruits are similar to people, similar to characters. Perhaps I was not the first to see that the pear has features similar to humans. I like puppet animation. It was a creative experiment. Photography is also a kind of painting. Only the artist paints with light, not with paints. Perhaps I will continue to work in this genre. Maybe I’ll make an animated film with pears.

Before you started working with pencils, you created oil paintings and artistic miniatures on matchboxes and seeds. Why did you finally decide to choose pencils as an object for your work? What are the advantages and disadvantages of working with miniature objects compared to larger ones?

I’ve always liked miniatures. I liked doll houses and objects for these houses, I like miniature jewelry, and much more. In my creative search, I was looking for various forms and materials in experiments. So, I found graphite pencil interesting for myself. When I started working with graphite, I liked this material. It was unusual. The first sculptures often broke down, it didn’t always work out on the first attempt. This motivated me to continue. It became a challenge for me. I tried to find the limits of my abilities. I made sculptures more elegant and more complex, even smaller and even more complex. Before me, such pencil sculptures were made by 2-3 artists all over the world. It has now appeared online by hundreds of miniature sculptors who have followed my example. Everyone uses a pencil as a tool. But I turned a pencil into a rare work of art!

The main drawback is the small size and the difficulty of creating something impressive on a 2mm lead. Of course, graphite is a very fragile material. When you remove a piece of graphite, you can no longer change it or put it back.

The advantage of miniature sculpture over conventional sculpture is the WOW effect! Sculptures of ordinary size can be made by any sculptor. But few artists are able to make a 2X3 mm sculpture.

This kind of art is like magic. It seems that a person simply cannot create such small and at the same time so beautiful objects. Can you open the veil of mystery a little and tell us how masterpieces are born? What is their life path from the idea to the final result?

In fact, it’s very simple! All you need is a microscope and a sharp knife (or needle). The sculpture is already inside graphite. I’m just cutting off all the excess!

First, I imagine the future sculpture in my imagination. I literally create a sculpture and imagine the whole process in my head. Then I just sit down at my desk and do what I imagined under the microscope.

This process is similar to meditation. I think this is exactly my meditation. While working, my body is in this world, not my mind and fingertips are in another dimension. In my macro universe.

Every job has its own challenges. Have you encountered any unique or unusual challenges when creating miniatures? Please tell us about this experience.

I have been creating micro sculptures from graphite for 10 years. I made a lot of mistakes in the early years. Sculptures were obtained from the 5th to the 10th attempt. For example, during the process of creating the micro Eiffel Tower, the sculpture broke down more than 10 times, but started again and again until it did. This was the case with many elegant sculptures where there are many small details. I was very upset and worried. But then I learned patience and humility. It’s broken, it’s not scary! Just starting over. It’s an experience. After a few years, I learned how to create sculptures without mistakes, almost always from the first time, from the first take. Now sculptures sometimes break down at exhibitions or during delivery. It’s sad, but it happens.

Among your works there are characters from TV series and films, sights and even real people. How do you choose the theme for each miniature and what do you want to convey with your work? Are there any cultural or personal influences that are reflected in your miniature projects?

Most of the ideas for my sculptures are suggested to me by my numerous subscribers and followers on social networks. Also, customers are asked to create something special for them. Sometimes I’m just inspired by a movie, an animated movie or a comic book or a pop culture character. I think my sculptures reflect our time, our modern culture and the products of our civilization. If my sculptures had been preserved for several thousand years, then archaeologists in 4023 could have learned a lot about our culture from my sculptures.

characters from TV

You have had various interesting collaborations. Teamwork is always interesting, but it is also difficult. Which collaborations do you remember the most? And what other joint projects would you like to participate in?

My favorite project is a collaboration with HBO and the creation of a large collection of characters and items for the promo series “Game of Thrones”. I have done more than 10 exhibitions in Europe and Asia, showing fans of this amazing show my micro sculptures based on the Game of Thrones. I would like to collaborate with some popular brands, such as Crocs, Nike, Tiffany and others, where I could prove myself as a creative artist.

In one of your posts you wrote: "We will all leave this beautiful world one day. I want to transfer the digital souls of my favorite artworks to the New #NFT Universe". Do you still think the NFT has a future? Do you have any positive experience in this field?

Yes, I think that the digital world, metaverses, and cyberspace have a great future. People will learn to literally live in a virtual world. Science fiction writers are constantly talking about this and it has already come to our real world. NFT art has suffered due to its connection with cryptocurrency, because crypto finance is a highly volatile risky way of storing funds. When the token exchange mechanisms become a common secure tool, then I think the NFT will return again. Now the first wave has passed, the excitement has subsided. Yes, I managed to notice the trend and sell my first works a little well. It was an interesting experience.

You are very popular on social media. Your TikTok has over 12 million followers. What do you think is the secret of your success? And do you have any strategy for promoting to a wide audience?

There are several reasons and factors that have influenced my popularity in social networks. I will write about two main reasons. The first reason is the rarity and strangeness of my works of art. Micro-sculpture on the tip of a pencil is still quite a rare art form. And 7-8 years ago, it was actually something very unusual and amazing in its form. I would even say “revolutionary” in art.

The second reason is the technical part. I was the first to use a trinocular microscope and professional macro photography of the process of creating a sculpture from a pencil. Such content simply did not exist before me. When you create something that no one has done before you, it quickly becomes popular. The media and the audience are always hungry for something new and unusual. There is such a rule in contemporary art: “Just create something that no one has ever made before you. Or do something differently than it was done before you”.

You were a speaker at the TEDx conference and the theme of your talk was: "It's never too late to start all over again". That's a good message for anyone who has doubts about whether to start. What other advice would you give to aspiring artists who are interested in creating miniatures?

I would advise all artists, not just beginners: Experiment a lot. Look for new materials, try new techniques, new media, create something new… experiment, experiment constantly.

Look at evolution in the living world. Evolution in our universe is a constant experiment with transformations of matter and form for the birth of something new. This is a movement that gives birth to a new Life. It’s beautiful, isn’t it!

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