My parents always lived an artistic life and when they had me, they had no doubts I would be an artist. By looking at them I had no doubts as well. They put me in an old suitcase, which became my first bed and my first art studio; there I found my first pencils. My parents moved from one place to another, and I drew, drew, drew. That was a happy time. I used to draw on any surface I could possibly find - on paper, walls, and asphalt, everywhere. My mother used to help me finish my first drawings and my father used to explain to me what composition means and how to make a drawing complete.
Drawing # 1 - Chipolino. This is one of my first drawings, where you can understand what is actually drawn. I drew it in 1969 when I was 3 y. o. When I turned four I began to call my activity "work". Most importantly, I knew what art was.
Drawing # 2 - Hedgehohog. I remember how we did this drawing with my mother, she showed me how to work with watercolors. This one I drew in 1971 when I was 5 y.o. When I was five I had my first competition in drawing on the pavement and won the first prize. As a child, I loved reading books with paintings of great artists and anatomy books. I drew a lot of portraits of people.
Drawing #3 - Father. I drew this portrait of my father in 1977 when I was 11 y.o.
I received my initial artistic training under my father, Valery Nenazhivin, a professional sculptor, and my mother, Nina Nenazhivina, an art enthusiast. In 1985, I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts from Vladivostok College for the Arts.I experimented, curated exhibitions, made photographs, performance, installations, painted pictures.
I work in all mediums, but daily practice has reassured me that ink and paper are my most suitable media. Each thing created in this world has its name and purpose, and if I have to choose a name that would unite all of the pieces of my work into one whole, I will name it chronicle. The reason driven by my work is that I genuinely enjoy the process, the outcome, and the feedback I get. For many years I have drawn the world I live in, and I continue. I pull it as I see, feel and understand it. The images in my works are born from a combination of these factors. In other words, I do not come up with pictures and plots; these images are a product of this world. To some, figures and objects from my drawings may be fantasy, but this is only a point in the extent to which many factors intersect and form a "thoughtform." The aesthetics of images and objects, their definite sequential arrangement, create a particular philosophical aspect of the drawing. My work is a friend and partner, it will "talk" to you, and you will discover new facets in it with each new sight.