I have been drawing since I was a child. Early on, I was fascinated with fashion design, so I started with drawing sketches of clothes and models, but later I understood that pursuing a career in Fashion Design in 1990’s Georgia would be both unrewarding and impossible. But I still enrolled in Art School in my school years. I took a preparatory course in architecture, and soon was admitted into a BA program in Architectural Design at Tbilisi State Academy of Art.
Studying there gave me the flexibility to explore my other interests; I was very much interested in Interior Design and Crafts. After finishing my degree, I began designing crafts in my own style, and this led to my acceptance at IED, Istituto Europeo di Design, where I studied Interior Design for a year and a half in Madrid, Spain. It was there that I won my first prize for the exhibition I organized for the American worldwide lifestyle brand – Eastpak.
Following my first success, I returned to Georgia and continued designing quilts for sale. I juggled this activity with working at different architecture firms. In the last two years, I have resumed drawing, and have been planning to make massive installations and paintings.
Recently, I began studying Visuals to make computerized, monumental visuals for large spaces. I concluded my studies with a live performance this summer, which won much acclaim.
Right now I’m primarily occupied with drawing, but in my free time I also make visuals and street art with wheat paste.
Usually, the main subjects of my drawings are what I imagine to be cosmic, illusory flowers that are pliable, stretchy and elastic in motion and in perception. I call all this “the Universe of Fio.” Fio, the Georgian word for ‘violet’, is also who I see myself as, because I adore purple.
This vigorous vision of flowers facilitates the whole creative process for me and stimulates my imagination so much so that I can draw spontaneously, without any deliberation, without planning ahead – as if I’m journeying down the terrains of my creative unconscious.
With the help of digital technologies, I envision bringing these flower paintings to life, to set them in virtual motion.
I see my paintings as the expressions of kindness and loyalty—qualities that are vital to my inner beings, and with that, as the expressions of subtle, periodic “twists” that life has in store for us. The final outcome of my works represents a point of liberation, when we’re released from these difficulties and complications.
And this is the overarching idea behind my concept – to bring much needed equanimity and balance with my drawings, visuals and textiles.
My principal motivation is to draw these flowers on a massive scale to be suspended like gigantic curtains in large spaces. Some of these works will be inscribed with texts, and some will be encrusted with quilt material
Spending time at the Prairie Ronde Artist Residency has been an excellent opportunity for me to work on my ideas and create some highly original, inventive works.