Meet Denis Protsenko of Valley Village

Today we’d like to introduce you to Denis Protsenko.

Denis, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Denis Protsenko and I was born on December 9th of 2006. That was the day in which I was blessed with a gift that would forever stay with me, both as a blessing and a curse, the passion of self expression. Not many people in this world have had the chance to experience this ability, but those that have had, are called artists in our world. I have been an artist ever since I could remember. Even when I was just 2 feet tall I was playing with paints, thinking of stories and dancing to music. Fortunately enough my parents realized the potential I had in me and took me to art classes at the age of 4. Now this wasn’t anything serious but it was my first step into the direction in which I am walking in today. From simply drawing fanart in my room to full musical theater productions, all throughout my youth I would always be involved in whatever arts I could be, performing or visual. It wasn’t around until I was 9 or 10 years old that my parents took me to art school for the first time. For the next four years, two or three times a week I would spend multiple hours there after school studying art technique in every medium possible until I mastered all the basics. In the same time period I also discovered my passion for music and would take private piano and vocal lessons for several years as well. Those short couple years of study gave me the greatest set of foundational basics that I still use to this day.
Then the famous virus struck the world in 2020 and by then I’d already stopped going to any school or lessons. Everything was shutting down and opportunities were getting slim, until I was all alone with myself. Due to financial instability, at this time my family moved away to a very secluded mountain area in San Bernardino, that was my final straw and the beginning of probably the lowest point in my life so far. I loved the city so much, it was something I would tend to if everything would go bad. The city was always there not only as a beautiful place to relax in, but also as a reminder that no matter what life is always growing around you, that whatever is now will always pass, but even that was taken away from me. I started spending way more time alone with myself, thinking about the worth of my life if things were going downhill so quickly. Fortunately though, I did not let this depressive state ruin my drive for creation. I would practice drawing day and night, post my works online, write stories, come up with characters, do everything I absolutely could to keep me from dying of boredom. Little did I know that I was getting the greatest practice of my life. The sheer quality of my art started skyrocketing so fast from this nonstop work, I am very thankful that I never stopped.
It wasn’t until my later teenage years though, that I finally realized the true worth and potential of the gift I owned. During high school I was lucky enough that my family was able to move back to the city. I truly felt reborn. I went back to dance classes and started making new friends again, it seemed that everything really took a turn for the better. As I continued my practices, I also started diving into the niches and different underground communities of the art styles I liked and the music genres I listened to. What I discovered may have just changed my life forever. I saw people that weren’t getting much attention for their work but still pushing with their vision in hopes of someone seeing it and stretching it to the rest of the world. I found absolute masterpieces in music, short films and paintings that came from young people just like me, that were created just for the sake of self fulfillment. This inspired me to push my limits and see where my extraordinary mind can take me. I would try to consume as much art in the most niche genres as I could, to broaden the visions I can so clearly see in my head. I could see so many things within myself that I realized that I couldn’t just limit myself to one, but that I had to do all of them to the best of my ability. Many might say that there has to be a point in an artist’s life that they have to settle down with one thing that attracts them the most after exploring many, but I found that this process of searching never stops. That a true artist will always be digging the deepest holes in the ground to find something new to expand on, something new to consume. My name is Denis Protsenko, and I am an artist.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest challenge I’ve come across in my life as an artist is the search and outreach for the right audience. There are so many people living here on this planet and one would say that theoretically everything that exists within this world has its own specific audience and consumers, which means my art too has an audience somewhere out there. Finding that audience is what I feel is the greatest difficulty I’ve faced so far. Even with great tools like the vast internet it feels like it is even harder to spread your work with it around. I work really hard on the pieces of art I make so whenever I try to post it, it gets no attention and it seems as if the world doesn’t care. The same issues occur in person as well. Introducing a piece to a person who doesn’t seem to be fully interested in it feels like what you made is useless, it makes me wonder if what I make is only meant for me, as if I’m the only one who understands what I create. People nowadays are so quick to turn away an idea or a creation if they don’t understand it or find it appealing in the first minute they spend interacting with it. Although the art I make is mostly for personal satisfaction, the message I try to get across is for the consumer, and if there isn’t one then it makes you wonder what the actual purpose of your talent is.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As an artist I present my work under the name fuujisake. It is a name I made up for myself ages ago, it doesn’t exactly mean anything but I’ve grown to like the sound of it so I kept it for the last 5 years. Although most of my art training is in illustration and painting I also really enjoy dance and vocal performance. Currently I am studying music production to further widen the possibilities of my creative endeavors. Music is my biggest inspiration because I believe it is one of the most raw forms of self expression along with drawing and dance. My art all comes from my head or what many call imagination and mine is extremely vivid, I see a lot of things, sometimes too much to handle, in which it sometimes feels like a curse. I see the world differently and I see truths that some people may not. I feel that it is my responsibility to bring these thoughts into fruition for the public.I have so many things to bring out of my head, so many important ideas I want to share and many of which come in the form of music. Currently I’m studying songwriting and music production and plan to release my first songs later this year under the same name of fuujisake.
For the last couple of years I’ve been troubled with the idea of the impact of capitalistic minimalism. An idea that has been implanted into our brains by major companies around the world that less is more convenient, that less is what you need. As long as you get paid and you survive then you are fulfilled and happy. People of this decade, especially of my generation, are quickly losing the ability to critically think for themselves and spend some time learning what they truly like and what they truly want to do. We are so used to consuming short videos, eating simple meals, going to places just for pictures, passing by everything around us because it doesn’t make a huge difference if we explore it or not. Simplifying everything around us is easier. It will make everything better right? No it won’t. If we keep going like this one day we will be so bored and nauseous and disgusted with this minimalistic life that we will desperately search for something new, but nothing will be there. If we keep going like this there will be nothing to turn back to. My work primarily focuses on this idea. To open up people’s eyes to the world that’s literally right in front of them. To put their passion to fruition and do what they like to do not only for money or survival but for personal gratification. To stop whining about how everything could be better and realize that everything is right in your own hands. My life’s motto is that if there is a will that there is a way. If you truly want change then there must be a certain amount of work you need to put into it to receive it. No matter how much that is.
The current project I am working on is called “Verse i”. It is going to be the first installation in the hybrid music-art project of fuujisake. “Verse i”, like all of my other art, tells a story, but this one will last a long time, it will metaphorically tell the story of my experience with creation, personal connection, admiration of nature, and the burden of truth. Verse i follows a main protagonist: Fuuji – an entity made of pure light meant to spread it to as many work obsessed, wealth clouded people as well as inspiring other youths to follow the unique spark within them. My biggest inspiration behind this project is an infamous style of graphic design called Frutiger Aero. Frutiger Aero is a style that emerged in the early to mid 2000s focusing on the merge of natural life and modern technology. The purpose of beauty only serves aesthetic pleasure and nothing more. Its visuals include both aquatic and land wildlife with green/blue colors and cyber-like clear technology and appliances. Something liminal and nostalgic that also feels futuristic and comforting. Unfortunately this aesthetic died in the early 2010s due to tech companies focusing on minimizing their design and creativity for a greater net profit, a terrible outcome. There exists a community that still hopes for the return of this subgenre of design, calling it the promised future that we never got. “Verse i” will focus on making this future the modern times. It will focus on creating a world where the wild can live in harmony with the modern, where we take inspiration from the outer world and are not afraid to bring it into our world even if it takes some whimsy and embarasment. I believe that if I’m able to bring back such a pure thing that it will inspire everyone else to rise up and take action for what they believe is right. There are so many people in this world who are not only amazing at what they do but also passionate about it. Imagine if everyone were to do what they were meant to do instead of hiding in some dreadful place just because it pays the bills. I am not trying to push everyone to drop what brings them stability but rather inspire them to work for something greater than themselves, to have great aspirations and reach for them. fuujisake is coming. If there is a will, there is a way.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
No matter if you’re an artist or not, luck has only one role in everybody’s lives, to control the things an individual never would. Luck plays a role in choosing what type of family you’re born into. What the world is like where you live. What place your family moves and what they decide to help you with in your journey before you have a say in it. Luck is having accepting parents. Luck is being born privileged. Luck is being blessed with the gift of life.
Other than those things, the individual themselves control everything else that is going on around them. You can always make your voice heard if you want it enough. You will always get the opportunity you deserve if you truly work for it. Nothing in this life is easy and most of the time to get the things you most deserve, is when you need to put in more work that you can even handle. A lot of the time things don’t work out, but it is always better to die reaching for your truth than pitying yourself and blaming it on luck.
The biggest role that luck played beside giving me the ability to be an artist, is giving me a family of people who believe in me. They believe that I see things greater than our lives and they believe that I have a plan that will change someone’s life if I work hard enough. Luck has given me parents that accept me for who I am regardless of what I’m like and what I choose to believe in. Luck has given me the blessing of being born and raised in Los Angeles, a city full of so much freedom and opportunity for people like me. Luck has given me a great golden chance to let me share my story and I won’t let it go to waste.

Pricing:

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Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/fuujisake
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fuujisake
• Twitter: https://x.com/fuujisake
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fuujisake
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/fuujisake
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@fuujisake