Archive for декабря 2014

Paintress Victoria Parhomenko. Thousand names of one strong woman.



After TV program «Glory minute» our country heard about her, she conquered the audience with her pictures with sand and iron. Talented artist always leaves prints of the nature of strong, restive woman with fine appreciacion (no matter, if she takes brush, sand, iron or clay). There might be made films about life path of Victoria, about heroine of our narrative, but only she knows, what does it mean, when you lose and find new strength to move forward. On this way she helps others, kids and adults and she discovers unique talent of the artist in herself.


«My name is Victoria Parhomenko, my mom calls me dear daughter, Viculya, love, baby. My children call me mom. My students call me Victoria Victorovna. There are people that don’t like me and they call me bitch, stinker, anyhow. Someone would call me a star. Someone would call me mediocrity. By my essence isn’t changed because of that. My hair doesn’t get longer because of that, my legs don’t become shorter, my right and left hemispheres don’t switch places. Despite that I have thousand names».


The story of our guest happened 20 years ago. Life path of Victoria Parhomenko reminds blind walk along impassable ground. Like in medieval fairy tales, the lady got into boondocks and got lost in the covert and she is desperately trying to break loose. The fight with fate that lasted many years finished with the victory of our heroine. But let’s talk about everything in order.

At the beginning of 2000 misfortunes were flooding the lady. Fire in her flat, depression, troubles with husband, poverty – during some years she had to overcome through all these. The most horrible thing that haunted her was inability to affect the situation. She tried to hide from depression in her creativity. But troubles didn’t stop haunting her. Endless removals, husband’s drunkness, disasters, poverty and depression again. She lived for some time in the Chelyabinsk region, then she moved to Anapa, then from hospital in Anapa she ran to Kurgan, where her mother lived. There Victoria started to earn some money for medical treatment of her daughter that was suffering from cerebral palsy. 


«Someone should have fed family. I understood immediately that I wasn’t able to deal with real estate, as I had to do it before. I used to catch on everything that was possible. I opened network company and quickly got involved into this area, received about 50 partners at first days. But after some months I understood that I wanted to do something else».


Then Victoria saw at first time video about Ilana Yahav, Israeli sand painter. Pieces of Ilana turned life of Victoria upside down. She was astonished that sand could be a material for painting! And it doesn’t depend on what you are painting, it depends on the painter. Victoria set a goal to learn sand painting. She decided to practice it independently, as  tuition was expensive, plus she had had to leave her kids and move to Peter. She shared her ideas regarding painting with her family, soon they helped her to make the first table for painting.

«My first table looked like a box or coffin. Its length was 1 meter, depth 65 centimeters. We gathered some sand, fried it and I tried to paint with it at first time». 

Long trainings started. Every morning she used to wake up at six AM and she went to her godson’s place that had the table. Every day Victoria went 12,5 km to reach her relatives’ place. She got there by foot in order to save money.  


«I used to draw one hour till the table became hot; my godson shoot it; then we watched together all that video. Then, in the midnight we went some blocks by foot to my friend’s place. We always showed her the last videos. She criticized my work, she told that was horrible and I could do better. At 2-3 o’clock in the morning I got home, slept a bit and then again went to train».


Victoria realized at her birthday that she was ready to get to scene and show her art to audience. She managed to rent a space in a café with big TV, she printed tickets and gathered  people.


«It was difficult to explain what I was going to do. The closest people came to my first program, about 35 people. That was the scariest audience: my mom, kids and those, who could say that it  was “not my thing”.



Victoria was presenting her program non-stop. When she finished, people were crying, gifting flowers, congratulating with happy birthday and first triumph. But when she went backstage, she cried, as she understood that all her plans were shattered. She couldn’t earn money via painting to cure her daughter. Victoria continued what she had started, she tried to rent new places, she performed with musicians. The amount of audience was increasing. Debut performance in front of huge hall brought her first 5 000 rubles. TV and mass media started covering her, she became recognizable…


«Then suddenly I moved to Anapa, left kids with my mom. I wanted to prove myself that I would return here as a different person (transformed). When I came here, I understood that I had to start from scratch here, not even from scratch, but from minus. I didnt know anyone here. I started drinking alcohol».


Introduction with one woman helped Victoria, this woman helped her to settle in Anapa. With the help of this madam Victoria started arranging concerts again, giving shows and making living. She learnt how to draw with iron and this art she used when she got to “Glory minute”. After some time one friend offered Victoria to open personal studio in Anapa.  Victoria agreed, but her partner disappeared after the opening. Victoria relied on her and first 7-8 months were extremely difficult to handle alone. She had to gather master-classes from internet, to experiment so that to be able to offer something new for her students.
 в студии


Today in the art-studio PROSPERE tens of people are studying. There are pre-school children, pupils and pensioners, Victoria can teach anyone. After challenging way towards success our painter  changed in a big way her attitude towards art, creativity and herself.


«I feel myself Jewish. It comes with ages, when you start feeling your national identity. I love Hebrew, I get real pleasure when people speak Yiddish. I love Jewish holidays. Deep down I feel that I belong to Jewish culture. Moreover, I am a real Jewish mummy. I am convinced that there are 2 types of kids: strange and genius. I always say to my kids: “you are the best, you can do more”.