Julia Naurzalijeva

I am a classically trained artist with a creative journey that has unfolded across many disciplines and countries. My early work in theater—consisting of designing sets and costumes for stage and film in Estonia, Russia, and France—has taught me new ways of thinking, with space, light, and narrative as living elements of composition. Over time, my practice extended to include mural painting and book illustration, from children’s literature to graphic novels published in Canada, Poland, the United States, Russia, and Estonia. Currently based in Poland, I continue to explore the connection between image and imagination, working with a focus on movement, subtle allusions, and the quiet poetry of visual storytelling.

My style is unique without sacrificing fluidity—I move between drawing, painting, and illustration with an intuition born of experience and the necessity to express oneself. My works are mirrors: reflecting my history, knowledge, emotions, and memories. They map experiences and the world through the language I understand best—the visual language of the relationships of line, color, symbol, and space.

Drawings, in my view, do not come together as an assembly of separate parts, but rather arise continuously, gradually as if from one continuous line. There is no strong sense of distinction within the work, and the transition between depicting various objects can best be compared to changes of rhythm within a piece of music.

Although there is a tendency to make use of classic form, techniques, and motifs, there is nothing portrayed that is simply a matter of habit or convention. Sometimes the intent is ironic, sometimes somber, but every detail contains meaning and is always rooted in an impulse: to portray the world as it exists as I experience it at the moment of work.

The way in which I paint makes heavy use of figures, without denying the use of abstraction or allowing myself to be limited by the use of nature-derived forms. My brushwork is textured, as if resulting from dry strokes, and the lines suggest restlessness.

Alongside the conscious use of technique is the narrative it is being used to portray. Narrative is central to my work. What is especially key is depicting the relationship between characters and the environment, and in this way strengthening the sense of story. The stories my paintings and drawings tell are emotional stories—subtext and symbol, shape and color, figure and space participate dynamically together.

As is the case with all art, each subject depicted contains the shadow of the artist, of myself, in the case of my works. These subjects are created as they exist under the lens with which I see people in my non-artistic life, as characters on a stage: shy, resigned, naïve, full of inner life and strange contradictions. Beneath the quiet surface lies a universe of ceaseless movement and transformation.

The ceaselessly moving, restless water of the sea is a prominent figure in my visual lexicon. Its beauty is of the kind that is alluring, dangerous, secretive, and always in motion. It is a metaphor by means of being a concentration, a microcosm of reality—a place where life mutates, truths are hidden, and explanations evaporate.

Contrasting with the sea, and reality, all subjects are depicted motionless, but their sense of stillness is vulnerable and unsupported. I always like to capture in my work this moment of transcendent, fragile, and ethereal order; before gravity, the physical situation, or an outsider's aggression changes it. The subjects in my paintings and drawings are simply pretending to be solid, highly present, and above the natural order. It is this short-lived balancing act that makes us believe in its static existence.

Aware of the necessity of being a lifelong learner; libraries, myths, art history, and cultural texts help me keep my visual imagination alive. I am most fond of trying to excavate the mythic core of traditional fairy tales. In several of my works, I have tried to give new life to these stories with the hope of stimulating a new appreciation of the timeless tales that form part of the basis of our collective culture in an age of fast-paced entertainment. It is an invitation, in the guise of an illustrated story, to savour, rather than inhale.

Expanding upon the above, an artist can only continue to offer and create new pieces if the artist and their inner world continue to grow as they progress with their career and life. It is in recognition of this truth that I dedicate myself to continuous growth and improvement. Commitment to this is a commitment to life, for life, for the duration of one’s lifetime, and without life, there is no art.