“I HAVE ALWAYS PAINTED”

INTERVIEW: TATYANA MENDYBAYEVA

OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work

Tatyana Mendybayeva: Born in the USSR in the last century. Most of my life I lived in the ex-union republic of the ex-USSR, which since 1991 has been an independent state – the Republic of Kazakhstan.

My main activity is work in the country’s healthcare system, because many years ago I chose medicine as my profession.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

TM: I have always painted. I started writing poetry about 20 years ago. At the beginning, these were epigrams and poetic congratulations on various occasions. After that, the rhymes began to become more complicated … What surprises me is that, in order to formulate even a simple thought in poetic form, you need to search not only for rhyme, but also for the maximum conciseness of this thought, and at the same time, amazing discoveries are obtained.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 2021-2022?

TM: I wrote two fairy tales: “The Tale of the Sevenfold Widower Vasya Sinebrodov” – a variation on the theme of the fairy tale about Bluebeard, “The Tale of the Transmigration of Souls or Reincarnation in Slavonic”, a cycle of poems about animals for the youngest children. I have lyrical, civil poems. I paint oil paintings and illustrations for my texts.

There comes a time when, quite consciously, you seek to define the bar of your abilities. And in this case, the Eurasian Creativity Guild is not only a community of like-minded people, but also a measure that sets the bar for your creativity here and now, the upper limit, which, fortunately, is not limited to.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

TM: It’s great when a creative person has teachers, but if you belong to the community of artists and poets, then it is the rivalry in creativity that is both a stick and a carrot that spurs you on to self-improvement.

In 2021, I participated in the annual competition held by the Guild in the category “Poetry” and became a finalist in the competition, which was attended by more than 200 poets from 12 countries of the world … What is this if not an incentive?

This year I took part in the “Voices of Friends” competition already in 3 nominations: “Poetry” with a fairy tale about Bluebeard, “Illustration” – illustrations for a book about animals (for the youngest children) and the nomination “Painting” – with a young man portrait in the technique of oil painting.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career? 

TM: What can I wish for people of the Homo faber type (lat. A person who creates), who write poetry and prose, paintings, articles and music for themselves, or rather “on the table”? Let professionals evaluate your work and you will have a chance to express yourself to the  world. Dare!