Kirichenko
Semenovich Alexander

I loved to draw since childhood, though, except for drawing lessons at school, I never studied anywhere else, and I did not imagine myself as an artist, my dreams were in another direction, to learn to be a cook and get a job as a cook on a merchant ship. I studied to be a cook, but I ended up serving in a construction battalion in the ZABVO, instead of a cook in the Navy.
Thanks to this, fate brought me together with a guy from Moscow, I don't remember his name, but it was he who introduced me to this rare art form "grattage on plastic" and passed on his secrets and nuances in this art. During the service I reached a high perfection in grattage, my coworkers asked me to make different things, an icon of the Mother of God, a portrait of a girl or a family portrait. In two or three days I could enlarge a 3x4 cm photo of a girl on paper to portrait size and make a grattage version of the portrait.
After returning from military service, civilian life dragged me down and I even forgot for almost a decade that I had received such rare knowledge in art. The hard 90's came and in order to feed my family, and I worked then in SPM-242 (construction organization) and the salary was not given for months, I decided to remember about my hobby. I equipped a workshop in the wheelchair room and began to work. With difficulty my hands remembered the once fine-tuned movements of cutters and scalpels. Gradually everything recovered and I began to make for sale various products, signs for the toilet and bathroom, sets of cutting boards, individual greeting cards, etc. There were also large orders, such as a sign for a shoe shop, sports club "Lokomotiv". At that time was very fashionable kitchen furniture covered with plastic, so this was the biggest order. Doors mezzanine, kitchen table and four stools, I prepared sketches in the style of Disney characters Donald and Mickey Mouse and then transferred to the kitchen furniture. No one else in the world had such a kitchen set, decorated by hand, in the style of "grattage on plastic".
In addition to products for sale, he had time to make paintings, though when inspiration struck. According to his simplicity and kindness, he gave his paintings to friends and acquaintances for birthday. In 1996 for the first time exhibited several of his paintings at an art exhibition in the exhibition hall in Vorkuta and gave the director of the exhibition hall one of his paintings "Valley of the Snake", which is made on the seat of the kitchen stool. And here again came the time of life hustle and bustle, inspiration went away and I forgot about my hobby for almost more than twenty years.
A new wave of inspiration came in 2018 and I started to create again, now I do not think about any business, I realized one thing that you need to work only when inspiration and soul sings, then in your hands is born the picture that can inspire not only you but also other people and do not waste your energy on soulless.
I think it will be interesting to know how to do my paintings, all the secrets I will not disclose, but the essence is as follows: First on a piece of paper or tracing paper draws the outline of the silhouette of the picture. Then we prepare the size of the paper blank plastic and it is covered with stain, the stain dries and by putting on the plastic on top of the paper with the drawing around the drawing with a pen, it is imprinted on the stain. Now it remains only to outline it with a chisel or scalpel on the stain and begin to create, with each movement of the chisel to give life to the picture in the light and shadows. When the painting is finished it is covered with a few layers of varnish and that's it. That's it in a nutshell, now I'm trying to use other types of coating, but I haven't found a better stain yet. It takes from a few weeks to a few months to make a painting.