Balancing Creative Projects and Personal Life

An Interview with Dmitry and Apollinaria, students of the program “Selling and Promoting Art for Artists in Russia and Abroad”

A couple who are partners not only in life but in art. Dmitry makes the works, while Apollinaria promotes the art, suggests ideas and sometimes even materials for future pieces.

In our interview we talked about how hard — or how easy — it is to create as a pair, and how they find a balance between creative projects and personal life 💜

About them:
I’m the one who makes the works — Dmitry — while Apollinaria promotes the art, throws in ideas and sometimes materials to work with.
In my art I use mixed techniques and different kinds of art. Every technique my thoughts and hands have grown into so far — and this is only the beginning!

The techniques are simple: carpentry, or rather handwork, and you could say collaging beautiful little objects, stones and dried flowers together with wood — something close to assemblage.
It is in the synthesis of techniques that something fresh and unusual to the human eye is born.

We live and draw our strength in St. Petersburg and on the shores of Lake Ladoga, where our homes, our studio and our flights of imagination are.

What themes do you raise in your art?

Dmitry: Usually I offer viewers what we share with them — a fascination with natural forms, colour and mythological subjects.
But as you walk the human path, you find in your mistakes and your searching something new, something that has to be shown to the world: your feelings. And then comes the task of embodying them in your work, no matter what material or what form.

How did you two meet?

Apollinaria: We met on social media, where I noticed and was genuinely surprised by Dmitry’s art and his language, both unfamiliar to me. I was curious to get to know him as someone who lives by his art, making such rare things. So he suggested we work together creatively — and how right he was. Our union rests largely on co-creation, love and a shared sense of beauty.

How do you support each other when one of you hits a creative block?

We haven’t run into that affliction yet, but if it happens, we think you need to pause, rest and refresh. It is always useful to learn something new and unexplored.

What advice would you give to other couples working together, to keep a balance between creative projects and personal life?

We think creative projects strengthen your personal life and make it richer. Even on a walk in the forest we are in the middle of a creative process — Dima hunts for intricate materials for his works, and I film him for reels.