Artwork is aware of no boundaries, and few artists embody this philosophy as seamlessly as Valeriia Puhach. A Ukrainian-born creator, Valeriia masterfully intertwines two seemingly contrasting disciplines—tattooing and ceramics—right into a singular inventive imaginative and prescient. Her work explores transformation, storytelling, and the natural connection between the physique and materials, redefining the way in which we understand each everlasting and sculptural artwork. Immediately, we sit down with Valeriia for an unique dwell interview, delving into her inspirations, strategies, and the emotional depth behind her creations.
Interviewer: Immediately, we’re sitting down with Valeriia Puhach, a exceptional artist who bridges the worlds of tattooing and ceramics, mixing these two seemingly totally different disciplines right into a seamless expression of artwork. Valeriia, thanks for becoming a member of us!
Valeriia Puhach: Thanks for having me! I’m excited to share my journey and inventive course of with you.
Interviewer: Your inventive background is kind of various. You began with tutorial artwork and structure in Ukraine earlier than transitioning into tattooing and ceramics. What led you down this path?
Valeriia Puhach: I feel my journey has at all times been guided by curiosity and a want to discover type and texture. My training on the Donbas Nationwide Academy of Civil Engineering and Structure gave me a powerful basis in classical artwork, portray, and sculpture. That’s the place I first encountered clay, and I used to be instantly drawn to its tactile nature. However at the moment, I didn’t but see how it might later connect with tattooing.
After I found tattooing, it felt like a revelation. Not like engaged on a canvas or sculpting, tattooing is dynamic. It includes collaboration with a dwelling, respiratory canvas. The way in which ink flows on the pores and skin, the way in which a composition interacts with an individual’s physique—it’s an enchanting course of. However after years of tattooing, I discovered myself lacking the bodily sensation of making with my arms, and that’s what introduced me again to ceramics. Now, my artwork is an ongoing dialogue between the 2.
Interviewer: That’s an fascinating connection! How do you see tattooing and ceramics influencing one another in your work?
Valeriia Puhach: To me, they’re each about transformation and storytelling. Pores and skin and clay are each natural, versatile but sturdy, they usually each carry historical past. With tattooing, I work immediately with an individual’s type, designing items that improve their physique’s pure motion. With ceramics, I form the fabric, letting it dictate a part of the method.
My newest ceramic assortment is immediately impressed by tattoo tradition. I take advantage of deep blue ink to create designs that resemble tattoos on porcelain. Some items have handles formed like piercing rings, reinforcing the connection between physique artwork and sculpture. It’s all about displaying that artwork is fluid—it doesn’t should exist in a single strict type.
Interviewer: Your ceramic assortment options symbolic imagery—serpents, blades, crowns of thorns. Are you able to inform us extra in regards to the meanings behind these items?
Valeriia Puhach: Completely. I really like creating items that inform a narrative. Every design is symbolic, very like tattoos.
For instance, The Dream Backyard options two intertwined snakes—one has caught a butterfly, whereas the opposite has let it escape. To me, it represents alternative, future, and the paths we soak up life. Poisoned Blade is about resilience—a snake wrapped round a blade, not succumbing however as a substitute utilizing its personal venom to combat again. Uroboros, a small vase with a snake biting its personal tail, represents cycles—creation, destruction, rebirth. These items are impressed by tattoo motifs however reimagined on a special canvas.
Interviewer: Talking of storytelling, your tattoos even have a novel strategy. You typically work freehand as a substitute of utilizing stencils. Why is that?
Valeriia Puhach: I really like working immediately on the physique with out a inflexible stencil as a result of it permits for a extra natural move. Each physique is totally different, and I need my artwork to really feel prefer it belongs to that particular person—not simply as a picture, however as a part of their motion, their identification. Freehand tattooing provides me the liberty to adapt the design in actual time, shaping it naturally to the contours of the pores and skin.
Interviewer: You additionally concentrate on working with scars and cover-up tattoos. What attracts you to that side of tattooing?
Valeriia Puhach: It’s a really emotional and highly effective a part of my work. Scars inform a narrative, and overlaying them or incorporating them right into a tattoo could be a type of therapeutic. It’s about reclaiming one’s pores and skin and remodeling a tough previous into one thing lovely. I work fastidiously with every shopper to create designs that not solely cowl however complement their scars, making them part of the paintings somewhat than one thing to cover.
Interviewer: That’s such a significant strategy. Do you see your self persevering with to stability tattooing and ceramics, or do you are feeling drawn extra towards one than the opposite?
Valeriia Puhach: I don’t assume I may ever select only one! Tattooing will at all times be my ardour due to its intimacy and collaboration with individuals. However ceramics permits me to step again, work at a special tempo, and experiment with type and materials in a means that tattooing doesn’t. The 2 are continually influencing one another in my work. I feel so long as I’m creating, I’ll at all times discover methods to merge totally different inventive disciplines.
Interviewer: Lastly, what’s subsequent for you? Any thrilling tasks on the horizon?
Valeriia Puhach: I’m engaged on increasing my ceramic assortment and experimenting with new strategies. I’m additionally touring to totally different tattoo conventions this 12 months, connecting with different artists and studying new approaches. And, in fact, I’m at all times in search of methods to push my work additional—whether or not by way of new tattooing kinds, totally different ceramic glazing strategies, and even combining the 2 mediums in surprising methods.
Interviewer: That sounds unimaginable! Thanks a lot, Valeriia, for sharing your insights and keenness with us. The place can our readers observe your work?
Valeriia Puhach: Thanks! You could find me on Instagram at @valeriatattooing, the place I share my newest tattoos and ceramics. I’d love for individuals to hitch me on this journey!
Interviewer: Make sure to take a look at Valeriia’s work—her artwork is actually one thing particular. Thanks once more, Valeriia!
Valeriia Puhach: Thanks! It was a pleasure speaking with you.
