10 Questions with Zhyldyz Bekova

Zhyldyz Bekova is a Kyrgyz painter and digital illustrator. She creates works of art for exhibitions in watercolor, graphics, and mixed media. She came to oil painting in 2020. The technique of painting gives her works additional expressiveness. The compositions on the canvas look different as if they come to life.

In her subjects, she uses themes from myths, customs, and traditions of Turkic ethnic peoples of Central Asia. She loves to convey Kyrgyz national motifs using her unique cultural heritage. Her ancestors had a rich spiritual heritage - shamans, healers, and diviners. One of them was her great-grandmother. Her grandmother and her aunt took the baton. People call them koz achyk (from the Kyrgyz language, it means "soothsayer"). She spent all her childhood in that environment. That's where her attraction to mystical stories and otherworldly visions comes from. She wants to pass on in her paintings her heritage, the time, the man, and his place in this system of values.

She has always been concerned about the relationship between nature and man. She believes that man was and still is a part of nature, just a part, a child, but not the main thread of the whole system. But, as we can see, he (man) tries to become the main link. How we forget the mistakes of the past, we forget the real human spiritual and moral values. We ourselves are diligently destroying everything around us with all our might. Nature itself gives us the opportunity to live in harmony, but we ignore it, looking for different ways of superiority over it.

zhyldyzbekova.com | @zhyldyz__bekova

INTERVIEW

What is your artistic background, and how did you start experimenting with art?

I was born into a family of artists, so I began to draw from an early age. I learned to draw more from anime, cartoons, and films. At that time, we did not have phones and computers, just what was on TV. I had to memorize, analyze, study everything myself, and try to reproduce, recreate, and repeat. It was interesting. There was a great desire to learn how to draw as well. I've been into anime for a very long time. Hence, probably, the interest in creating their own plots, stories, and experiments with styles. We had a conservative education at the university. They taught the basics of painting, drawing, and composition. But they did not teach creativity, look for new trends, or experiment. They focused on classical painting from nature, realism, social post-Soviet themes, and subjects. I started with watercolors, drawing something between graphics and illustration. The works of Terada Katsuya, James Jean, Katsuya Tanaka, and many others have greatly influenced me. I came to oil later in 2020. Prior to that, I thought that oil is a complex material; you need to come to it consciously and seriously. By the way, oil painting was not taught in my department. I started to study on my own.

Why are you an artist, and when did you first decide to become one?

The desire to create and enjoy the process itself influenced the decision to connect my life with art. It is to create works according to your ideas, to experience feelings and emotions at the moment of the process; this is the best that art gives. This is freedom of the imagination. Art is the best medicine for the soul. All our childhood with my brother was spent in my father's work studio. Therefore, I have been drawing since childhood and already knew that I would always do this; I always knew that I had something to convey to people. Art gives a lot of opportunities and a lot of scope for the imagination. And with it, you can convey problems and touch on important themes.

You work with both painting and digital illustration. What do these two techniques have in common, in your opinion? And why did you choose them specifically?

The common thing is that these are tools for creating and conveying ideas. Both options make it possible to create an image. But for me personally, the process itself is important. I get high when I start to paint on a white canvas, and I like tactility, feel the material itself, smell it, and obey it. The live material is more complicated, as sometimes there is no way to correct it, and then you try to think about how to avoid the collapse of the whole work. With digital, everything is simpler, one or two buttons are pressed, and that's it. For me, digital is like an additional opportunity to present an idea to the viewer, but there are a lot of ideas, and sometimes you don't always have time to transfer them to the canvas. But I also like concept art in digital. Create characters, atmospheres, fantasy worlds, or even just experiment with styles.

You come from Kyrgyzstan and, in your work, often refer to myths, customs, and traditions of Central Asia. How important are your roots for your work and development as an artist?  

Man is a unique and unrepeatable creature. Each has its own culture. I like the folklore of different people. This is history, and these are things that connect us with the past and the present. I want more people to know about my culture. We have a great history, and legends left on our lips, in clothes, in everyday life, in traditions. But time goes on, changes, the further, the more people begin to forget about their history, culture, a lot of things are mixed up. Therefore, it is important not to forget about your roots, about your ancestors. I try to portray a lot through my prism of perception. I am learning to convey national motives in such a way that they are understandable not only to the locals but to be accessible to the perception of the Western audience.

What messages are you trying to convey with your works? 

Sometimes it's hard for me to talk about a certain work. Sometimes they are born in one breath; my consciousness turns off in the process and wakes up when the work is completed. But everything is done on the basis of internal experiences and sensations, worldview. I like that the audience still feels a certain message in this work; they experience the same emotions. But the main thing in my work is the Man since everything in this life revolves around his existence.
We constantly ask questions about our origin, where we are from, and whether we are alone in this Universe. What else is there? Try to give your own views of the world, based on intuition and imagination.

A key theme in your production is the relationship between Men and Nature. How do you translate this theme into your paintings? 

Man is a selfish being. He constantly thinks about himself and his comfort, often breaking boundaries. I'm worried that we ourselves are destroying everything around us, forgetting that we are guests on this Planet. In my works, I show that we can live in harmony and respect nature. I like to convey the natural shades of colors, and it gives a feeling of calm and warmth. And moments of tension of the gloominess of the whole situation and the relationship between Man and Nature. I convey the images of people as anthropomorphic or animalistic that the problem is in the person himself, and he creates them himself.

Is there any difference in themes, subjects, or style between your paintings and digital illustrations? And why? 

Since I was fond of the genre and style of anime, I started with copying. Then I tried to find my style of drawing. There are a lot of different directions and styles, a lot of interesting things I constantly want to develop, try and experiment. It's the same with genres. I'm fond of psychedelics and arthouse; sometimes I create works on the topics of inner feelings and experiences.

Do you have anything else you would like to experiment with? 

I have yet to fully learn painting, there are still a lot of interesting things in it, exciting stuff. If I experiment, I would like to use space to create large-scale installations and mix different materials. Create a whole space on a specific topic. Recreate my characters in bulk, and bring them to life.

What are you working on right now? Any exciting projects or exhibitions coming up soon?

I keep looking for complex compositions; I want to make them more dynamic. I am looking for new characters, and mixing materials, such as oil and liner, pastel. I want to add children and animals to the plots. Just started a new series of paintings with children's games.
I'm trying to find a balance between abstraction and figurativeness. I want more freedom and intuitiveness in performance, and independence.

Finally, as we are almost at the beginning of the new year, what are your goals and resolutions for the new year? 

Work harder, and also participate in competitions and exhibitions.