Life & Work with Lark Larisa Pilinsky

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lark Larisa Pilinsky.

Hi Lark Larisa, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My art name is Lark, the bird that lingers between the earth and the sky. I like to meditate, write poetry and paint in this state of no mind, but at the same time I can be very practical, helping other artists that fly high in the sky to be more grounded and succeed in their art career.

I was born in the remote mountains of central Asia in the family of a geologist and a language teacher. I grew up in the world of their explorations and dreams, surrounded by his semi-precious stones and sounds of my mother’s voice, singing songs in different languages and reading me Shakespeare’s sonnets. They taught me to learn from nature and to have her always present in my life as an ongoing source of inspiration and a wellspring of creative energy.

When I was a teenager drawing people and their movements was so easy for me as breathing. I guess I wanted to learn something more difficult and chose industrial design as my profession, which delayed my art career for almost 20 years. When I moved to California, I started my friendship with Bunker Art Group members and they helped me get back on track. It was a second chance to live my childhood dream to be an artist.

I became inspired to create non-representational artwork like the Bunker leader Kiki (Gregor Mikayelyan). Although it was challenging for me – only realism had been accepted by the totalitarian Russian society – I took a step into an unknown world of creative freedom. At day time I worked at my job as a designer and created art at night often until early morning.

My friends from Bunker Art group included me in their exhibitions and I started promoting their unique talents. It was more than 20 years. Since then, I have organized more than 100 Bunker Art Group exhibitions at trending galleries and museums.

My devotion to art, to my surprise, brought me very soon the recognition of art jurors including Director of Santa Monica Museum of Art Lisa Melandri and MOCA curator Alma Ruiz. Most recently my art was exhibited and acquired in the permanent collection of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art and my painting “Vivaldi’s Summer” won the Golden Award at the Shiba City Museum of Art group show in Japan.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When I came in 1993 from the former Soviet Union, where I had headed a department for exploring new methods of teaching and was known also as a journalist and a poet, I had to basically reinvent myself in Los Angeles. I worked as a secretary with Jewish Family Services, sometimes a translator and sometimes even a driver. Eventually, I improved my English and made many friends and fans from different countries, nationalities and beliefs.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I always felt that my mission in this life is to bring more light to people with my art, poetry and meditations. When people perceive the light and playful energy of my paintings they feel as if they were back in the fairy-tale world of their childhood, when their soul was open to miracles, like Alice in her enchanted Wonderland. These are moments of deep healing. People are also find those miracle moments in my recently published book Lark’s Enchanted World, a collection of my art and poetry.

Although I begin my artworks in a meditative state and use some abstract expressionist techniques, as taught by my Bunker group mentors, eventually most of my creations start shaping as impressionistic landscapes. I channel nature’s moods and swim in its atmospheric light.

I rarely use a brush when I create art. It makes me think too much. Instead, I use pieces of cardboard, plexiglass, wood, boxes, and other materials which I call instruments. I love to experiment with them and see what happens on different surfaces when landscapes of oceans, skies, trees, flowers and mountain views emerge from the formless.

I also love helping other creators to be visible to the world. That’s why in 1994 I founded LarkGallery.com, to present the work of international artists, musicians and poets that evokes thinking and builds bridges between people.

With a support of the City of West Hollywood LarkGallery has led more than 50 exhibitions, workshops and art retreats in the different cities of Los Angeles County and abroad. We are currently preparing art shows, concerts and poetry readings for the WeHo Mishka – Russian Speaking Community Culture Festival in Plummer Park which will culminate on May 21.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
When people enter the space of my art and settle inside to heal their emotional wounds, I see it and that makes me very happy.

I am also happy, when I teach art to students from 6 years old to 93 and their eyes lighten up before my art lesson, when I infuse them with my intuitive visual meditation, and after when they see their first creations.

I am also happy when I do yoga and laughing meditations with my friends when I dance and sing and swim.

Contact Info:

• Website: LarkGallery.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lark_pilinsky_art
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lark.pilinsky.art
• Youtube: Tet-a-tet with Nature by Lark (Larisa Pilinsky)