OCA #49 PEOPLE

PEOPLE

BUILDING THE LANDBRIDGE WITH EURASIA

WE ARE FOR PEACE! [ EURASIA 2023]

GULNARA MAKHMUDOVA

40

11 ARTISTS 20 WRITERS 3 FILMMAKERS 6 PUBLIC FIGURES

ISSN 2053-1036 RRP: £20.00 / $25.00 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM ESTABLISHED 2009

OCA

2

OCA MAGAZINE

FROM THE EDITOR

WELCOME WORD It is once again with great pleasure that I introduce to you OCA People- the magazine where we showcase forty of the Eurasian Creative Guild’s talented members. I am constantly amazed at the knowledge, skills and inspiration that our members have.This year’s edition contains many people that I have had the privilege to meet personally as I travelled around Central Asia over the last twelve months. During that time I have been to new places and been enthralled by new experiences but the common thread that weaves all of my journey’s together is the individual members of ECG. From the craftspeople and architects of Samarkand, textile designers in Tashkent and the traditional Bakhshi singers in Gulistan, Uzbekistan was a real highlight for me this year and a number of my newly gathered friends are to be found in this magazine.

The Guild has continued to grow and in doing so shares the experiences and humanity that such an organisation holds. I know that many of our nearly three thousand members are deeply affected by world issues - I read it in their poetry, see it in their paintings and films and I feel it when we meet . But through struggles and adversity one thing comes through

and that is creativity. It doesn’t really matter which side of a line drawn on a map you come from, which belief system you hold or even what age, sex or colour you are - what matters is that you have your creativity and that you recognise others creativity too!

As chairman of the Eurasian Creative Guild I have tried to shoulder the responsibility of caring for all of our members.

I hope I have encouraged creative people and been a small part of sharing cultures through our festivals and competitions. I believe that ECG is an important and vital organisation and I encourage you to help other ‘creatives’ join the guild so that their experiences can add to the positivity that the world needs now more than ever.

Yours, Gareth Stamp Chairman Eurasian Creative Guild 2022

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

3

ACADEMY of foreign schools. When teaching English, close attention was paid to the development of communicative abilities of bilingual education, communication skills as a whole and applied use of the English language.

The success of “First” school students allows the child to adapt to a multicultural environment. Our work successes became attractive for parents when choosing a school. Coming to Kazakhstan, foreign parents enrol their children of preschool age in our school, where they, communicating with their peers, learn the Kazakh language, and get acquainted with the culture of the peoples of the world.

At the school children learn the national cuisine of various countries of the world, listen to the national anthem of the country whose cuisine is represented, and national musical compositions are played from the dining room all day long.

GULNARA MAKHMUDOVA WE ARE FOR PEACE! OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity/work.

Gulnara Makhmudova: Good afternoon. My name is Gulnara Mahmudova, I am a teacher-psychologist.

In 1999 I founded the “First” school, grades 0 to 6, in the city of Semey, and in 2018, a branch of the “First” school for teaching preschool children in Almaty (Kazakhstan). Being a teacher has been my dream since childhood. For children it’s a huge world, open to freedom of creativity. From the very beginning the first methodological theme (till 2004) of the “First” school was the theme of studying successful teaching methods

4

OCA MAGAZINE

At the end of each week, the children have a disco, and in the evening the school teachers perform famous works on the dombra. During creative classes, students listen to world classical music from operas and ballets

by Giuseppe Verdi, Gioacchino Rossini, Giacomo Puccini, Beethoven and other famous composers - this is how the children are introduced to high culture when the songs and arias are performed by the teachers themselves, who have a specialty in “classical performance (opera singing).”

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

GM: The first person who taught me about choosing a profession was my mother. She, being a financier, studied mathematics and other subjects with neighbouring children with sincere pleasure. Mother was always interested in the success of children, and paid great attention to their studies.

Today I respectfully remember the names of my teachers not only in school, but also in life: the teacher of the drama circle, Igor Konstantinovich, was able to inspire us to talentedly play the roles of characters in performances. And my swimming coach is Tatyana, she helped develop the desire for a goal in me, its successful achievement and daily work. Working as a teacher, I devote a lot of time to reading educational literature. I enjoy teaching practice.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

GM: Every year is interesting and eventful. Our achievements benefit the entire society by educating and informing worthy citizens of a creative future society. And this dream of mine came true!

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

GM: There is one uniqueness of our methodology in the work of a school with young children: the system for implementing the success of education is accompanied not only by vocal praise, but also by a clear digital designation (plus, minus, percentage, rating) of all the moments of mastering the educational material by our young student: each item or exercise of each topic, each word or example, each task is marked with a plus or minus in a special journal, and transferred to a computer accounting system (CSU). The real, or objective, assessment is added up for a week, a month, a quarter and a year in the form of a graphic system: the direction of the diagram and the peak of the height in the coordinate system give a clear idea in which area of knowledge the student will be successful!

And, what is especially important, the school derives interesting patterns of the quality of a child’s knowledge and the influence of his genetic predisposition to success - and this, in turn, allows our graduate to enter a secondary school of any subject area and an increased requirement for knowledge!

I consider it especially valuable that our work allows us to form a civil position in young children, the concept of humanity, tolerance, love for the culture of the peoples of the world and for the Motherland - Kazakhstan.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

GM: My goal is the personal happiness of people close to me. I wish my daughter happiness and all graduates to live their life trying to do good deeds so that there is world peace! My motivation? But isn’t the desire to live in a prosperous world already motivation within itself?

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

GM: I wish all novice creative people all over the planet to meet sincerely kind people who will share correct and wise ideas and instructions on the formation of a creative environment, such as, for example, in the Eurasian Creative Guild. I wish the Guild successful projects, loyal members in its ranks, achievement of the most humane goal, prosperity, peaceful days, and inner HAPPINESS!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

5

ART GS: The city of Florence is steeped in the history of this era and its masterpieces, which left a fascinating impression on me. This training basically determined my path in creativity. The great Botticelli, Raphael, Andrea di Sardi, Tiepolo were my spiritual teachers, and in practice, it’s an academy professor, signora Sonia De Francesitti.

Actually applying the studied technique of antique painting, I have painted a “Chastity matter” picture.

Canvas, oil 120×100 sm. Unfortunately, the word “chastity” is rarely used nowadays, and some people don’t know what it means at all… Once the Queen Maria Theresa of Austria even established an innocence commission to fight against immoral conduct. But the chastity,- is not only the body (in the painting it is marked by barbed wire around the hips of women), - it is also the head, and the way of thinking, and the behaviour of a person, and his communication with colleagues at work, at home, with parents, friends, children. This is allegiancy, devotion and honesty in everything and with everyone in his life and in the life of a country! Chastity, keeping oneself in oneself..., and turning one’s inherent value into a precious thing. In a deep philosophical sense: whether your innocence is your precious thing? In any way, everyone will have a different answer to that question. For me personally, this is a very vital, important topic, and this picture is in fact my peculiar Message to the World!

GALINA SHEPELEVA TURNING ONE’S INHERENT VALUE INTO A PRECIOUS THING OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Galina Shepeleva: My name is Galina Shepeleva, I was born 10.09.1955 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. As far back as I can remember, I’ve always painted, starting in children’s art school. After the end of my main working activity, I had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to study antique painting and frescoes in the birthplace of the great Renaissance for 4 years in the ART Accademia AD’A in Florence, Italy.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

6

OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

GS: Both 2022 and 2023 have been rich in creative experiences for me. In March 2022 participation in the exhibition “World Art Dubai 2022”. Thanks to my curator Lidia Drozdova I take part in exhibitions and art spaces.“Beautiful Image of Woman” Exhibition timed to March 8, 2023. In May-June online Golden Time Talent London and then participation in the same festival in London in July. Participation in the Republican Kazakhstan exhibition “Shining light on others, burning myself” about the work of healthcare professionals during the pandemic.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

GS: For me, Art is the most democratic form of communication there is. It can make you dream, think, it can give you feelings of bitterness or happiness, wonder and admiration, hope for the realisation of dreams....

Art helps to get better, as they say, a better version of ourselves… Perhaps this is what makes my creativity and work valuable and unique. I try to make every painting I do say something.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

GS: An amazing experience for me was joining the Eurasian Creative Guild, London. By acceding the Guild as an Ambassador, I feel myself as if in a new, higher quality with expanded boundaries and horizons, including events starting with the acquaintance with a wonderful person, vice chairman of Guild Marat Akhmedjanov.

One had already taken place during my stay in London in July, organised by Genadiy Gorovoy, poet and ambassador of Guild in London, where I presented two of my paintings “Chastity” and “Peonies”. This meeting

has given me a chance to get to know so interesting, passionate, versatile people who came to this meeting.

I hope to have further contact with them in the future.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

GS: My motivation is love for life and everything that surrounds me! And the goal is always the same: I invite the viewer to immerse themselves and spend time with their imagination.

OCA:What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

GS: To the members of the guild and all creative people I wish health! physical, creative, spiritual… to have a bright head and intentions, success in our difficult work and more positive!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

7

MUSIC Cinema is one of my favourite fields of activity. I wrote my first music for a film in 1999. Since then I have written music for more than 150 movies, won a few international and local film awards for the best music. One of my latest works is the music for children’s feature film “Chizhik-Pyzhik comes back” which was released on August 31, 2023. In addition to film music I’m producing films and music videos.

A big project I’m working on now is the autumn premiere of “Arctic Landscapes”. It’s the first symphonic work in the world that was made aboard an icebreaker.

I wrote it during the Marine Integrated Arctic expedition. The project is multimedia and includes musical performance as well as video content that make an effect of being live in the Arctic spaces. Now we are preparing a photo exhibition that will be open before the “Arctic Landscapes” premiere. Besides, I’ve already published “Arctic Surrealist’s Diary” which I’ve been writing during the expedition where I describe what happens with the creative person in the extreme weather conditions and in the confined space of a ship.

MARAT FAIZULLIN TREAT THEIR CULTURES CAREFULLY OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Marat Faizullin: I’m a composer, musician, performer, producer and publisher. Now I live in Bashkortostan, but have worked in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg for a long time. Symphony and chamber music, theatrical performances, cinema, ethnic and electronic music, live performances and studio recordings. You can hear my works in Russia, Germany, Spain and the USA. I’m producing my music project Marat Tauras, and also musicians from different regions in Russia (from Tuva to Kalmykia) under my label Aera records, Afarin records and Cinemusic records. I work with Café De Anatolia, the leading global record label of modern ethnic music.

8

OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

MF: Twenty years ago I saw a huge perspective in ethnic music and decided to learn to play folk instruments: Turkic, Russian,Asian.The same time I decided to spend most of my time working on academic music, and my spare time on ethnics. I have had academic music education, I’ve learned a lot and I continue studying folk music. It’s an endless important gold mine of ancestral knowledge where all codes of our future lay.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

MF: In November 2022 I held a big concert dedicated to the 25th anniversary of my creative activity where I performed the best works. In 2023 I launched a very prospective IT-project “Sounds.Music”. It’s a program for delivery of the music to video and audio editor programs by my own design. And recently I won a prestigious award as the best composer at the Film Awards “Golden plate”.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

MF: Slavic and Turkic blood are mixed in me.According to the family legend, my paternal kind comes from one of the Gingiz Khan’s warlords when his army reached

the foothills of the Ural Mountains. My maternal ancestors moved to the Ural region from Central Russia.

Maybe that’s why a Bashkir quray sounds naturally in my soundtrack for a movie about the Russian North, and a Russian svirel in the orchestral score for a Bashkir folk melody.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

MF: My Music video “Ufa”, where I’m a producer, composer and performer, won the Audience Award in the ECG Film Festival 2020. The same year I became a member of the Guild. And then I was recommended for an Expert Council of Cinema and now I’m taking part in its activities and Guild’s events. Cinema, as well as music, is the unique language that helps to build a cultural dialogue and convey to the audience your message.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

MF: It’s very important to me to keep a dialogue with the audience during performances and promote the culture of my nation. I play more than fifty various instruments. I’m dreaming of the creation of the Live Music Museum where visitors could not only listen to the sound of instruments, but also try to play by themselves.The museum is going to consist of the stationary part of the exhibition and “mobile” part that we can travel to any audience with.

I practise interactive communication with listeners within my philharmonic project “Tales About Mother”. More than ten folk musical instruments are on the stage and after the performance anyone who wants can try to play these instruments. It always delights visitors, especially children. Seeing these emotions I’ve got an idea to create the Live Music Museum on a permanent basis. And also, I plan to actualise Slavic and Turkic ethnics in the years ahead.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

MF: I’d like to wish all members of the Eurasian Creative Guild and all readers of the OCA Magazine to remember their roots, treat their cultures carefully and, of course, succeed in all endeavours!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

9

LITERATURE published 18 books in the 20 years of living in Australia.

All my books are not fictitious stories, novellas.A series of my books is called “Non-Fictional Stories from the Life of Russian Emigrants in Australia’’. My books are being translated into English at the State University of Queensland and in America.There are stories that have been translated into Italian and German. I also draw. In my paintings there are landscapes of Russia and Australia.There is a series of paintings ``Temples of Russia”, which is very popular with Australians, and they buy paintings for their interiors.

LIUDMILA LARKINA EACH PERSON FOR ME IS NOT A WRITTEN BOOK OCA Magazine: Please tell us about yourself and your creative work Liudmila Larkina: I am writing about the fate of Russian-speaking emigrants living in Australia. In Australia, there is a most valuable layer of Russian history, completely unexplored, covered with the dust of oblivion.

Many Russians scattered around the world after revolutions and wars settled on the 5th continent. I record interviews with representatives of the first waves of emigration, whom I still managed to catch, archive their memories, analyze, and study. In 2009, I created the magazine “Australian lampada” - a chronicle of Russians in Australia, which is published to this day. I have

10 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your example/teacher?

LL: As a child, I loved to participate in poetry reading competitions. After one such inter-district, children’s competition, at which I read poems of my own composition, a correspondent from the local newspaper Svetly Put came to our school, and for the first time I gave him an interview about how I write poetry. My poems were published in the newspaper. I was very inspired by the attention of adults to my work, and I began to write more and more. My poems and stories were systematically published in local newspapers. During my student years, I was the editor of the student newspaper Juventus. Working as a researcher in Russian museums, by the nature of my activity, I had to write a lot of articles, reports, and describe scientific research about ethnography. Over time, I realized that I could not live without writing.

OCA: What do you consider your main achievement in 2022-2023?

LL: In 2023, I became a member of the International Eurasian Creative Guild and met many talented authors personally. I am very glad that the International Eurasian Creative Guild entered my life.

OCA: What do you think is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique and valuable?

LL: I really like to communicate with people. Each person for me is not a written book that needs to be written in time, to learn from the experience of a person who can leave with his knowledge and experience tragedies. It is important to have time to write down and pass on their wisdom to others. The experience of people is the most valuable thing we have. Studying the life of one family, we study the life history of entire gen-

erations. Their experience can prevent troubles, wars, catastrophes.

OCA: Please tell us about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) in which you have already managed to participate and how ECG(London) has influenced your life?

LL: In December 2022, the International Conference of the Eurasian Creative Guild was held in the Australian city of Melbourne, where I attended as a delegate, speaker, and became one of the winners in the Heritage nomination. I met writers, poets, artists from Israel, America, England, Russia, Uzbekistan and many other countries. This expanded the boundaries of communication, gave new strength, set new goals. I am very grateful to the creators and leaders of the creative guild for their work, for the inspiration they inspire, for the way they treat authors, literature, history, and publishing.

OCA: What is your motivation and what is your goal?

LL: My goal is to record Russian history in Australia while there are still people alive who can tell about it first hand. In my books, the story is about how emigrants built Russian Orthodox churches on the 5th continent, nursing homes, Russian clubs, schools, libraries, how they preserved culture, passing on love for the Motherland from one generation to another. Much can be learned from these people who have suffered terrible hardships, forced to leave their native lands after revolutions and wars, but have forever preserved their love for their Motherland and built their little Russia on the 5th continent.

OCA: What would you wish to members of the Guild and other creative people who are just starting their journey?

LL: I wish prosperity to the Eurasian International Creative Guild and your magazine. To all authors, artists of new creative finds. As long as there are such guilds and authors who are willing and able to create beauty, the World will live.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

11

LITERATURE OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

AZ: The urge to tell stories that came together with the faculty of speech.The urge to write stories came as I learned how to write.The decision to become a writer came when I immersed myself into the psychological depth of Dostoyevsky’s characters. As Dostoyevsky once remarked, “beauty will save the world.” Not the physical beauty, but the beauty of the human soul. Dostoyevsky became my role model in literature.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

AZ: I would say my short plays: “The Old Man and the Doctor” and “Crossroads,” which gained recognition at the “All the World’s a Stage” international competition. I would also mention my novel “Loving an Autist”.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your artwork unique?

AZ: All of the characters in my novels are realistically depicted, and each one has his or her well defined personality. What stands out in my work is that there isn’t one main character, they are all equally significant.

Additionally, the end of my novels are always unpredictable and dramatic.

AL ZATURANSKY MY GOAL IS TO SPEAK TO MY READERS AT EYE LEVEL OCA Magazine: Please tell us about yourself and your creative activity/work.

Al Zaturansky: I am first of all a writer. Life doesn’t always allow us to fulfill our childhood dreams. Both of my parents were doctors and they wanted me to be a doctor as well. My new country, Israel, specifically wanted me to become a military doctor, and that is what I did. My dream, however, was always to become a writer, so that is what I eventually did. The main theme of my novels is the human being. I feel the joy, suffering, failure and revival of my characters along with them.

As Gustave Flaubert once remarked, “Madame Bovary is me.”

12 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

AZ: I took part in the prose competition of ECG in 2022 with my novel “Loving an Autist”. Without any doubt the ECG influenced my life, opened new horizons, and gave me hope that my novels will reach a broad audience and will enjoy recognition. What more could a writer wish for?

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

AZ: My goal is simple: To speak to my readers at eye level, about their love, their disappointments, their faith and their perception of good and evil. I am looking for a dialogue that will give us, my readers and I, a higher understanding of ourselves.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

AZ: I wish for all creative artists to master hard work with ease. I wish them a deep view into our time that changes every minute. They should always believe in success and never lose their Muse!

LITERATURE OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

KM: Publication of my next book “Without Details”.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

KM: My attempts to give sound to words.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

KM: Online meetings with Guild members, participation in contests, judging. The friendly and respectful attitude towards all members of the Guild is very attractive. I look forward to further cooperation.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

KM: My goal is to make people think about good and evil, love and hate and other human values.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

KM: I wish them more good stories, health, and happiness.

KARINA MULIAR MY GOAL IS TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK ABOUT HUMAN VALUES OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Karina Muliar: I was born and raised in Chisinau, Moldova. Graduated from the Kishinev Academy of Arts. In 1991, the family emigrated to Israel.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

KM: I started writing short stories in 2010. Classical literature served as an example for me. Of modern authors, the style of Arkady Arkanov and Victoria Tokareva is close to me.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

13

ART path. D.Amgalan - National Artist of Mongolia, Honoured Worked of Mongolian Art Purevsuh, Olziihutag, and my class teacher Ya.Tuyaa. One of them is a teacher of compounds, the other of painting and practical plainairs for artists. And my other teachers are, of course, the history, legends and epics of my Kazakh people. For more than 30 years as an artist, I have been reviewing the forgotten Kazakh Art “Keste ‘’ in addition, l taught traditional art at the Academies of Arts and Art college.

Many of my students are currently performing their art with the art of “Keste’’ and participating in exhibitions.

My students Zeinelkhan Botakoz, Assel Abilkhay are famous among young artists for their unique handwriting.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

MZ: My creatime path began with the rich traditional crafts of the Kazakh people, including “Keste” embroidery, it was necessary to bring it closer to modern art.

To adapt to a new direction, while retaining the features of the traditional embroidery art, which is almost lost. My first work, to the attention of an art critic.

MUKHAMEJAN ZEINELKHAN TRADITIONAL KAZAKH EMBROIDERY “KESTE” AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Mukhamejan Zeinelkhan: I’m Mukhamejan Zeinelkhan, an artist. Born in Batam-Ulgiy region, Mongolia. Before school , l grew up in the countryside with my parents. I graduated from high school in 1974 and entered the Fine Arts school in Ulaanbaatar, graduating in 1978. I was taught by very talented teachers. The teachers who taught me at that time are now the leaders and masters of the Mongolian fine arts.The conversations of my teachers with students about creativity and what they taught us left a deep mark on my creative

14 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

MZ: In 2022 years I became a “Diploma Winner “ in the nomination of Decorative Applied Artist at the UMAI NATIONAL Prize.

In 2022, my work was published in the leading Art-Catalog “The Great Steppe Treasury” in London. In addition, I became the owner of the “KENSINGTON” diploma under the international program EAF Art REZIDENCE PROGRAM 2022-2023. I am also a member of the Eurasian Creative Guild.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

MZ: In 1992 I moved to my historical homeland, to Kazakhstan, where the most successful periods of my work began. The traditional art of “Keste” (embroidery) opened a new breath in me. Now “Keste” (embroidery) is a modern genre in Kazakh art. Raikhan Yergalieva, a well-known Art-science Kazakhstan doctor, says about creative path: “It’s not simple in our temptations time after all research and delights of 20th century art to find your unique creative way among the many beaten tracks. To create a new art direction for modern culture especially seems almost unreal.

However, it turns out that even now, when we often remember the words that “nothing new for the moon”,

there is still opportunity for unique artistic discoveries.

And this, of course, pleases, This helped me to step on the new international and application of traditional Kazakh crochet embroidery techniques, and then create on this basis a new direction, or even a kind of fine art. Most likely, it is an open-minded approach to the tradition, the new brave and unexpected view of things, the painstaking hard work and certainly the “smallness “ without which it is impressive - an artistic talent and taste.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

MZ: The Eurasian Creative Guild came to us bringing together talented artists. This opened the way to a deep acquaintance with the art of England.The publication of my creative work in London leading Art Catalog has changed my creative life. We have a dream in the

future to present our work to the care that our dream will come true.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

MZ: My task is to raise the traditional Kazakh embroidery “Keste” at the international level.

OCA:What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

MZ: I wish the members of the Guild and colleagues great creative success!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

15

ART I am a professional pastel artist and my creative direction is impressionism and postimpressionism. Additionally, my research interest within fine art is ‘A French Art of the 19th-20th centuries, creativity, and philanthropy within art and, in education - leadership and management and distributed leadership. I am a member of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London), a member of the Artists Union of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Cyprus, and a member of the International Independent Fund of Women Artists of the Republic of Kazakhstan - ‘Tan Sholpan’. In addition, I am a Laureate of the Grand-Prix of an international creative festival – “Shabyt” and, as well as, I am a participant and a diplomat of art competitions, plein airs, and symposiums both locally and internationally.

ELMIRA ZHUMABAYEVA DISTINCTIVE, CONCEPTUAL, AND RECOGNIZABLE OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Elmira Zhumabayeva: I was born in 1978 in Guriev city (Atyrau). I am a certified specialist with an extensive professional experience (23 years) as a senior teacher and master in higher education. Currently, I am a PhD student at Nazarbayev University. I took a master’s degree in humanities (MA – Education Leadership and Management) from the University of Reading through the Bolashak international program. Moreover,

16 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

EZ: I began to comprehend the basics of art at the age of 6 by enrolling in a music school (piano class) and a ballet school named after Bella Davydovna Univich. My feelings about art were intensified with the magazine “Crestyanka’’ and art books, where there have been published masterpieces of well-known artists and their biography, and also with Christmas decorations and toys with their shapes and colours.What about my role model? I think, firstly, my father, as he was a free listener of V.Suricov’s Art Academy. Secondly, my ballet teacher - Bella Davydovna, and the teachers from music school.

They formed and strengthened in me a taste for beauty and laid the foundations for my skills.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

EZ: I think that I have two main achievements.The first main achievement is the scholarship from the government of Kazakhstan for a Ph.D. program. I joined the best cohort of Ph.D students at Nazarbayev University and now I am having an opportunity to get quality education, research skills, and innovative knowledge from internationally recognized and highly qualified professors.The second achievement is a membership in Eurasian Creative Guild (London). Owing to the mentoring and promotion of Nurlan Munbayev I have joined the Guild and, currently, being a part of this creative society my life has changed significantly.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

EZ: I think that the main feature that makes me and my

creative works interesting is the technique of soft pastel and my personally developed style having the aesthetics of impressionism and postimpressionism styles.

About the uniqueness of my creativity I can only say that the features of my works I think are the combination of different genres in compositions and the complexity of their plots. In doing so, I have always loved to include musical instruments, accessories, and furniture (chairs, armchairs, and consoles) in the compositions.

The heroes of my compositions are always in hats and have difficult poses.At the same time, you can see ballet and theatre scenes in compositions. I think that all of these features make every plot of my paintings distinctive, conceptual, and recognizable.

and all the best in their creative path. Everyone has the talent and potential to realise themselves and thus through the opportunities provided by ECG (London), it is possible to achieve this.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

EZ: In February 2023, on the advice of Nurlan Munbayev I submitted my creative works to the competition - “Voice of Friends Poetry & Art “ in the nomination - Fine Arts (picture) and, I have also written the article - “Development of education in Kazakhstan in the era of the knowledge economy and global challenges” for the OCA Education Magazine with the collaboration with Nurlan Munbayev. In addition, in March 2023, I went to Astana at a meeting with representatives of the Guild - Gareth Stamp and Marat Ahmedjanov. ECG (London) opens up horizons and opportunities for everyone who loves art.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

EZ: My motivation and the main aim of my creativity is my passion for Fine Arts, classical music, architecture, and furniture. In addition, I really love the period of the art of the 17th -19th centuries, including all art movements and aesthetic paradigms. Moreover, the masterpieces of outstanding musicians, such as P.Tchaikovsky, V.Mozart, F. Schubert, and F.Chopin also promote the creation of my works.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

EZ: On my own behalf, I wish the members of the Guild and other creative people good luck, inspiration,

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

17

POETRY / ART - Poetic Alley of Roses. It is an imagined place where poets and artists from all fields of art meet. Here, we can feel happy and free. Individual flowers may come from different places. Around our headquarters, rose bushes hidden in the forests grow.

- PoEzja London is the name of a group of artists who find strength and joy in working together. We organize poetry festivals, meetings, concerts, exhibitions, write poems, articles, and books. In a changing world, PoEzja London still finds joy in creativity.

On one side of the medal, there is an image of Barbara Jurkowska-Nawrocka. This is a tribute to our friend.

We remain as many as the good memories we create.

Barbara Jurkowska-Nawrocka is also present in our present. Her unique way of being in literature is a compass that allows us to find a creative path.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

MB&AS: Choosing an artistic path seems to be a conscious decision, but it is also the result of upbringing.

Our parents instilled in us a love of books; we have literary idols, great works that fascinate and inspire us.

However, following the path of art is motivated by a clear but unintended imperative. It tells us that creativity is important. Justifying it logically is difficult. It is not always understandable “Why?”. It is known that we must give our all and work with the most wonderful people to create a coherent world using poetry.

MARTA BRASSART & OCA: What is your main achievement in 2022ADAM SIEMIEŃCZYK 2023?

MB&AS: Our main achievements in 2022 are: WE STRIVE FOR BEAUTY THROUGH OUR ACTIONS OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work.

Marta Brassart & Adam Siemieńczyk: Our actions are described by symbolic words inscribed on the oGródek PoEzji medal which we designed and funded.

These inscriptions are: - Beauty.We strive for beauty through our actions and attempt to dwell in it. Beauty inspires us.

- Respect. We respect our friends and mentors, as well as all those who contribute to the development of culture.

18 OCA MAGAZINE

- A series of exhibitions in Poland and Great Britain featuring profiles of oGródek PoEzji medal recipients.

- Presentation of the oGródek PoEzji medal in various countries worldwide.

- Publication of books analyzing contemporary poets’ poems.

- Presentation of the PoEzja London group as part of the ECG in London.

- Translation of our poems into Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian, English, and German.

- Representation of Poland in the Slavic Academy of Literature and Art in Varna, Bulgaria, at the 17th Slavic Priegradka festival at the invitation of White Lady of Poetry Elka Niagolova.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

MB&AS: Each of us is unique. The attempt to understand oneself and show one’s interior is inherently unique. Living in exile gives our poems a different perspective on how we see ourselves in the world and how the world sees us. Poetry and sharing emotions through metaphors is an extraordinary experience.

Some people love golf, we love poems. We join with others in memories of our roots and traditions, as well as describe our everyday life and get to know other cultures.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

MB&AS: ECG is primarily a group of friends. People from different parts of the world united by a creative approach to life. We regularly participate in meetings organised in London. During one of these meetings, at the Turkish Cultural Centre, we had the opportunity to present our group, PoEzja London. We shared poetry, sculptures, music, books, wax tablets, and individual works with the group. Support and encouragement from other ECG members had an impact on our creativity and success in our fields. The multiculturalism of ECG members is incredibly interesting and inspiring.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

MB&AS: Creating a mental, intellectual, or physical space that gives us the opportunity to meet another human being. A poem is like a journey into the unknown. It uncovers the corners of the soul and takes us to a different landscape.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

MB&AS: For guild members and other creative people who are just starting their careers, I would wish for them to remain true to themselves and their vision.

At the same time, they must constantly educate themselves and discover new things. It is never known who and how can inspire us.

And please translate poems into other languages; this way, we can reach a broader audience with a beautiful message of peace and respect.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

19

ART always return to oil painting which until this day is my favourite way to express myself.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

RK: I don’t think I particularly choose my career; I like to believe that art chose me. That said, getting admitted to the Art academy in The Hague took several years and getting my head around which art direction to choose was equally challenging. In the end I chose painting even though my grades in print-making were much better than in painting. My graphics teacher strongly recommended that I stay in his studio, but I was fascinated by painting ever since I saw Rembrandt’s work as a little boy.

I can’t say that I have a particular role model in my life because I (have) learn(ed) various things from different people. My father always told me that it doesn’t really matter what you do in life but how you do it.

You should always be your best, he would tell me. My grandfather was a carpenter and I always admired the fact that he worked alone without a boss. I admire people who love their job and stick to it.

RONALD KLEIJER

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

RK: I would consider the completion of my project ‘Friendship of the People’ in 2023 to be my greatest achievement. It is a collection of oil portraits of the people of Uzbekistan. It took me almost 10 years to complete this series.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

RK: I am not sure I believe in “unique” art; every artist THE LONGEST LIVING EUROPEAN ARTIST has a history and is influenced by different events and people. Perhaps what makes me unique is that I moved IN CENTRAL ASIA to Tashkent in 1997 which was kind of unconventionOCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself al at the time. Until today I remain the longest living/ working European artist in Central Asia. Many people and your creative activity / work Ronald Kleijer: My name is Ronald Kleijer and I was did not fully understand why I moved. I knew why and born in Nootdorp near The Hague in the Netherlands. this has resulted in many paintings about Central Asia From 1993-1997 I studied drawing and painting at the in which I tried to combine my Dutch artistic educaRoyal Academy of Arts in the Hague. In September of tion with topics from this fascinating area. I also sup1997 I moved to Tashkent to travel and continue my ar- pose that not many people can say that they painted tistic endeavours.The plan was to stay for one year, but 1000 portraits. after I met my wife Galina, we decided to continue our life in Tashkent. I mostly paint (with oils) but in the past OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the I have experimented with other media as well; installa- Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects tions, photography as well as drawing. But somehow I that you have already taken part in and how

20 OCA MAGAZINE

does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

RK: I have not taken part in any events organised by OCA, which is bad. I was too engaged and focused on my project over the last several years. I believe “the Friendship of the People” will be a good start for a collaboration.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

RK: My motivation for my work is to get better at what I am doing. As I mentioned before, Rembrandt and Vermeer are examples for me; I am trying to develop my skills to my best ability. Another thing I am trying to show people is my views of Central Asia as a European. I come from a different background and was taught to observe in my own way. This is what I have tried to show in my work; the little things that are easily overlooked in CA which make this area such an unique part in the world.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

RK: I wish for creative people/OCA members to believe in what they are doing and at the same time, be critical towards their own work. By doing so artists can improve and create profound and personally relevant work. Oh, and stay curious!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

21

LITERATURE ES: I made a decision to become a professional astrologist when I was teenager. To be exact, my parents’ friends told me a lot about astrology. Later, when studying astrology, I was greatly impressed by the works of William Lilly, the 17th century English astrologist. And of course, I should mention Claudius Ptolemy. Well, if not only astrology is taken into consideration, then my example has always been and remains Queen Elizabeth II. OCA: What is your main achievement in 2022-2023?

ES: A great step for me was to become victorious in the international literary competition “Open Eurasia 2022”!

Without any doubt, that’s currently my biggest achievement!

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

ES: I can build unique life strategies! And my astrological knowledge helps me a lot in this.

ELENA SOBOLEVA “I CAN BUILD UNIQUE LIFE STRATEGIES!” OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Elena Soboleva: Hello everyone! My name’s Elena Soboleva. And I’m a professional astrologist (with a consulting experience of over 20 years), a honorary ambassador of the Eurasian Creative Guild (in London), as well as the author of the book known as “Moon in the Eighth House” (first prize in the “Prose” nomination of the international competition “Open Eurasia 2022”) and two collections of astrological articles. Also, I am the winner of the “Best Astrologist of the Year” from 2019 to 2021 according to various publishing companies and ceremonies.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

22 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA:Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

ES: I was a participant of several meetings with ECG members: in Moscow, Tashkent and Yekaterinburg. I took part in the international literary competition “Open Eurasia” in 2021 and 2022. Also, I was an absentee participant of the OEBF festival in Melbourne. It’s necessary to say that the Eurasian Creative Guild provided a great influence on my life! I received the highest award at the “Open Eurasia” competition. And nowadays, I have very ambitious plans for life!

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

ES: I’m motivated by new opportunities for development and growth that often arise in my life. My major goal is to live this life really brightly, beautifully, actively and positively. I want to inspire and surprise, to make the whole world know about my creative work and watch the film version of my book “Moon in the Eighth House”.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

ES: I wish all the Guild Members and all creative people to always remain creative, inventive and very interesting! I wish you to take part in various challenges, contests and competitions, to make a name for yourself, find as many admirers of your God’s given talent as possible and leave your unforgettable mark in history! I wish you all great luck! Thank you!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

23

LITERATURE OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

MV: My path chose me, it just reached me when the moment came. And I have many teachers, but first of all it is Chekhov and his amazing stories. It really is a writing school. In my youth, I read Dostoevsky, I read a lot of Tolstoy, Hemingway. Now I re-read Chekhov all the time, these are my universities. I also love the stories of Nabokov, O’Henry, Kurt Vonnegut, Maugham, the philosophical poems of Isahakyan, and of course Tolstoy. I also take inspiration from philosophical sources such as the Upanishads. And when I just want to relax, I read Agatha Christie.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

MV: Let me highlight a few accomplishments. I published a book by Altaspera publishing house in Canada.

Also, I won the second prize in the satire category in the Open Eurasia 2022 competition. Also, I took 2nd place in the “Thread” competition, so my story was included in the book collection for the Queen of Great Britain. Some of my poems were translated into Armenian and included in the anthology of Armenian poetry. In addition, my play was published in a playbook prepared by the Writers’ Union of North America, and several other projects were implemented during 20222023. Overall, it has been a productive year.

MARINA VARDANYAN COMPREHENSIVE MEANING IN A VERY SHORT STORY OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Marina Vardanyan: I’m Environmental and Natural Resource Management Specialist, and I love nature and people very much as part of this nature, but unfortunately they are often disturbing the harmony. In my short stories, I try to observe and philosophically rethink these observations or talk about serious things with humour. Why small prose, it’s just hard for me to be wordy.

24 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

MV: Without false modesty, I will say to put a comprehensive meaning into a very short story with simple phrases.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

MV: I was a finalist in Open Eurasia 2021 and won second place in Open Eurasia 2022, and in the competition “Thread”. This is a very important opportunity to show your creativity to professionals and get their appreciation. We write, because we can’t do otherwise, but it’s very important to get a professional assessment and to be heard. This is inspiring, and thanks for that to Open Eurasia.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

MV: Motivation for me is life itself and the variety of its manifestations.The goal is to try to express in words a grain of this diversity.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

MV: I wish the members of the Guild new interesting competitions and other events that promote the spread of culture, And for young writers write at least one line every day, and write about what you know or feel, watch and read a lot.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

25

ART of “Civic Alliance”; as curator of artist Aigul Saitova’s project, we were given the most prestigious venue in Russia’s “Garage” at EXPO 2017 in Astana. I was the youngest director of the Regional Museum, the Art Museum in Almaty. Member of artists of Kazakhstan, Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan, I have hundreds of publications on the pages of newspapers, magazines, collections, catalogs; lots of iso-art TV programs. With the leading archeologists of the country, I participated in significant archeological excavations; I was the chairlady and member of the jury of iso-art contests; organized and participated in plein air... I was awarded with the Golden Medal for successes in International Cultural Cooperation.

MARIA ZHUMAGULOVA LIFE ITSELF IS THE MOTIVATION OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity/work Maria Zhumagulova: My basic education is Repin Academy of Fine Arts as an Art Expert in Leningrad.

I’m the curator of many unrepeatable international, national, and private art projects. I have cooperated with the Embassies of other countries. Participation in International forums, competitions, scientific and practical conferences was very memorable. I participated at the Political Forum of OSCE, as the winner

26 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

MZ: I’ve always loved reading since I was a child. In our small town, we didn’t have much in the way of hobbies.

I became a freelance correspondent for a children’s newspaper and radio show in Moscow. My interest in the epistolary genre manifested itself through correspondence with my peers from Germany and from China. I even wrote a letter to Nikita Khrushchev and received an answer in 1961. In the pedagogical college, we had art history classes out of the curriculum; I didn’t miss a class. My teacher - daughter of repressed parents from Leningrad - helped me with literature.

This became a source for me to enter the Academy.

The teachers’ role who influenced my world outlook was great. These were Sergey Kukuruza, repressed artist from Ukraine and literature teacher Nadezhda Danilova, who encouraged my success in composing.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

MZ: 2022-2023 were very fruitful. I became the curator of artist Renat Yelubayev, who entered the Guinness Book of Records. I organized an exhibition of the Shalunov dynasty at the Russian Embassy.Their work is an amazing synthesis of Kazakh and Russian traditions.

The most memorable was the competition in the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) in Art-book nomination, where I received the Igor Savitsky Award for the best work. I’ve won many competitions. It was the first time I’d participated in a contest of that level. It was all the more pleasant to receive such an award.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

MZ: I believe the uniqueness and value of my work lies in the unpredictability of the process. It’s a partnership with artistic works’ authors. They are all different. Hence, new discoveries, new or forgotten old names, new contacts. It’s a study and identification of the uniqueness of the author’s message style, technology. I have a great deal of lecturing experience with a wide variety of audiences summarizing my experience as the best lecturer.

Now I’m giving tours in the Moscow gallery on “The World’s Most Mysterious Paintings”. My work involves constant changes of location with new concepts. I was the first to talk about the participation of a Kazakh artist in the restoration of Rembrandt’s Danaë in the Hermitage.

a major dream - to write books, which up to now I have not gotten around to. Time is booming, people with invaluable contributions to the country’s history, culture are leaving.There is a big deficiency of memoirs literature in Kazakhstan.

I would like to enter this niche and have time to imprint the deeds of Personalities with a capital letter, so that they do not remain in oblivion.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

MZ: Now there are lots of people in the Guild with interesting initiatives, communicative and active. This will make it possible to revitalize the life of the Guild even more. I wish newcomers to be more daring, to use this favorable platform to realize their potential.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

MZ: I have been a member of Eurasian Creative Guild since 2019. I’m attracted by the opportunity to participate in creative meetings, master classes, and press conferences. This involves gaining new experiences; getting to know representatives of different creative professions. Memorable project was the organization of an exhibition of Kazakh and Kyrgyz art for Chingiz Aitmatov’s anniversary in Bishkek, where I was the curator, author of publications and prepared interviews on TV. The possibility of mutual partnership in new projects is provided. Especially participation in OCA Magazine publications, where my article about the work of an artist from Kazakhstan has already been published. The opportunity to participate in competitions and festivals appeared. All this is a huge stimulus in search of new ideas and concepts.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

MZ: The motivation for me is life itself, so eventful. I would like to record all these dynamics of interesting meetings; iconic, as in a kaleidoscope of events. Participation in the Guild encouraged me to embark on

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

27

FILM Directing is my passion, which I can talk about endlessly. In my opinion, to be a director is to have the ability to create a new reality from the secrets of my mind, which means to be like God. My filmography is not very large, however, most of the films have become participants, prize-winners and winners of dozens of film festivals.I prefer to make documentaries precisely because no one has come up with anything more interesting than life!

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

NW: I realised my talent to embody images from imagination into reality from early childhood. I made my first directorial production of a fairy tale when I was 5 years old. My first role model was Federico Fellini. The incredible sincerity of the characters in his films, who never fit into society, extremely resonated with my worldview. Fellini’s pseudo-documentary films instilled in me a love for the natural course of life in cinema and, without noticing it, I began to share Martin Scorsese’s love for Polish cinema.

NATALLI WANG DO YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO BRING OUT INTO THE WORLD ALL THE TREASURES HIDDEN INSIDE YOU? OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work.

Natalli Wang: Thank you for this great opportunity to tell you about myself. My name is Natalli Wang: Film director, writer, theta practitioner and happy woman. Creativity is originally a part of my life. I was on the stage in a school theatre, as a singer and musician.

When I realised that it was easier for me to generate and give birth to my own ideas than to implement someone else’s, I began to write scripts for films, stories and fairy tales that were published in magazines and library collections.

28 OCA MAGAZINE

Reflective Polish cinema, looking into the souls of people, has shaped me as a person and as a director. Films

by Andrzej Wajda, Marcel Łoziński, Krzysztof Kieślowski taught me to see human feelings in the midst of tragic events. And my personal teachers Pavel Łoziński and Jacek Petrytsky discovered in me a passion for documentaries and the ability to create new realities from observations of life.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

NW: I consider my main achievement as a member of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and participation in the XI LITERARY FESTIVAL. The creative environment that I found there gave me confidence in myself and the strength to implement my new ideas.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

NW: Along with all the creative talents, I also have a couple of supernatural talents that make me a unique writer and director. I am a certified Theta Healer and helping people solve their problems through regression and guided meditation. I am fortunate to be doing two of my favourite things: healing and writing. And at the intersection of these activities, fairy tales, parables,

ing experience of self-presentation at online events allowed me to overcome a huge number of complexes and fears. The acceptance and support that I felt at those events gave me confidence and activated all my creative potentials.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

NW: Once upon a time, the autobiographical books of Elizabeth Gilbert became an incentive to transform myself and my life. In them I gained the courage to be myself, I stopped being afraid to be sincere and vulnerable. So one of my motives for creativity was the desire to also be a guide for someone to his soul. The main motive that makes me write is the invariable reaction of readers: “And what’s next?!!”. Now I don’t set myself global goals, I just find pleasure and happiness in putting the contents of my heart on paper and watching how it helps other people realise their value.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

NW: I’ll use the words of literature professor Jack Gilbert, which he addressed to Elizabeth Gilbert: “Do you have the courage to bring out into the world all the treasures hidden inside you?” These words once touched my heart and gave me the courage to create without fear of criticism and rejection, because treasures cannot be rejected, they can simply not be considered or their value not understood.

plots for books began to appear, which I saw and heard from the souls of other people during theta sessions.

My ability to see the inner world of a person and un- I wish every creative person to realise their uniqueness derstand the nature of his external behaviour allows and create from the depths of their innermost heart me to create such works that more subtly influence without doubting their own worth. the worldview of people and direct them to the desired changes.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

NW: As I said earlier, I was lucky to become a participant of the XI OPEN EURASIAN BOOK FORUM & LITERARY FESTIVAL. This experience had an incredible impact on me. The opportunity to read the works of other contestants on the competition website expanded my writing horizons and skills. And the excit-

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

29

LITERATURE as a chief specialist in economics and accounting in various sectors of the national economy, senior editor of the Kainar publishing house, head of the department of the Kazakh Encyclopedia publishing house, director of the Republican Museum of Books. In 1964 I graduated from the Kazalinsky Agricultural College, in 1978 from the Almaty Higher Economic School, in 1979 from the Faculty of History of the Kazakh State University.

I am a writer, poet, historian, accountant-planner, journalist, composer, author of historical and lyric epics, 64 songs and 10 ‘kuy’. I am a member of the Union of Writers, Journalists, Dombrists of Kazakhstan, the Society of Authors of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the “EURASIAN CREATIVE GUILD (London)”. I was awarded the Order “Kurmet”, the Diploma of the Kyzylorda region, the Excellence in Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the “Honorary Citizen” of the Kazalinsky district.

ABDISSATTAR OSPANOV I DO NOT CONSIDER MYSELF BETTER THAN OTHERS AS WELL AS MY CREATIVITY AS UNIQUE OCA Magazine: Please tell us about yourself and your creative activity/work.

Abdissattar Ospanov: I was born on October 10, 1941 in the village of Uyaly, Aral district, Kyzylorda region, Kazakhstan. I had been sick since the age of three and was bedridden for eight years.

Studying at home, in 1955 I graduated from a 7-year school with “honors’ ‘, on crutches I began my career as an accountant. In 1958 at Uyalinsky fish factory as a material accountant. I worked

30 OCA MAGAZINE

In 1992-2022 documentary novels were published: “Zhankozha batyr”, “Khan Syrlybay”, the trilogy “Narkesken”, “Danalar zhayly dastan”, “Zar zaman zardaby”, as well as a collection of poems, historical and lyrical-epic poems “Adamdyktyn arkalalap auyr zhugin”, a book-essay “Omir, netken tattі edіn”, a collection of poems “Adam, kayda barasyn?!”, a collection of songs and kuy “Ғұmyrymnyң arkauy - an-kuylerim”, orchestral scores “Tugan meken, senі suyіp өtem, men!”.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

AO: In those harsh military and post-war years, a 14-year-old boy who had just got on crutches after a long illness didn’t have to choose any right path in life. I had a dream to enter Aktobe cultural enlightenment. I wished to become a musician, because being bedridden I learned to play the dombra and the accordion, I sang Abai’s songs in my own accompaniment. The father was against and did not want to hear the word “Aktobe ‘’, since in 1940-44 he spent time in solitary confinement in this city prison as an “enemy of the nation”. After the end of the seven-year plan, he brought me to the chief accountant of the fishing cartel. My father probably influenced my formation as a creative person.

He was an excellent singer, storyteller, dombra and harmonica player. Maybe it was passed down from grandfather Urkimbay, who was justice of the peace, a poet...

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

AO: Main achievements are the publication of the novel “Zar zaman zardaby” in 2023, as well as my entry into the ranks of members of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London), the decision of the Guild, members of the Editorial Council on nominating me for participation in two Voices of Friends programs at once - in the Almanac 2025 and in the Guild-23 competition in the Poetry nomination.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

AO: I wish you all excellent creative success! And young people should not be lazy, work hard and create masterpieces!

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

AO: I’ve never considered myself better than others as well as my creativity as unique. Мy features are probably in the ability to set a specific goal, which I consider useful for society, the younger generation, for all of humanity. However, in order to achieve such a goal, I was always ready to sacrifice my career, my other achievements, I was constantly in contact with my readers, and at the same time my main weapons were diligence and a sense of responsibility.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

AO: Participation in events on September 24, 2022, acquaintance with Guild employees, Marat Akhmedzhanov, acceptance of me as a member of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London), participation in events on November 14-17 last year, acquaintance with Guild Chairman Gareth Stamp, famous composer Warren Wills - all these are new pages of my difficult but wonderful life.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

AO: I am motivated by love for life and family, historical, musical and literary heritage of my ancestors. What is my purpose? Probably become a favorite author of the readers of the Eurasian space and the world.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

31

LITERATURE regularly write about the region and support the activities of those from the region who may not be known outside it.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

NR: I am a somewhat accidental writer and historian. I never set out to write. When I returned from my Silk Road travels in 2006, I started to write Friendly Steppes to recount my journey. In that book I wanted to put some of the historical context around the various encounters I made with the local people I met on my travels. The history of the Silk Road is so vast, that I found it difficult to not turn my book into a thousand-page encyclopaedia! The real purpose of the book was to retell many of the wonderful characters’ stories as I found encountered them. Nonetheless, I collated my historical research and decided to it into a coffee table book to provide a distillation of the history alongside photos of the region’s people and places. Thus, Silk Road Revisited was born.

In terms of role models for my writing, I really admire travel writers like William Dalrymple and Colin Thubron because they have such a keen sense of observation while engaging with the people and cultures they meet. They illuminate the topics they write about with such ease and without pretentiousness.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

NR: Being able to continue to manage editing OCA magazine while juggling my personal and professional I’M FORTUNATE TO HAVE TRAVELLED responsibilities is a challenge! I write for pleasure and ALONG THE SILK ROAD selling books doesn’t let you retire early! However, I was delighted to be recognised at the Hertfordshire OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself Press awards in November 2022 for the “Best Travel and your creative activity / work Book”. As I mentioned in my acceptance speech, I am Nick Rowan: I am the Editor-in-Chief of OCA maga- often the one handing out the awards, so it was lovey zine and the author of two books about the Silk Road. to be able to receive one!

The first, Friendly Steppes, details my own travels along the Silk Road in 2006 from Venice to Xi’an. The second, OCA: What is the main feature that makes you Silk Road Revisited, is a history text accompanied by and your art/work unique? wonderful photos showing how the Silk Road has in- NR: I’m clear that I am not an academic. Others are fluenced the people and places along its route today. far more qualified than me. But both my books proEver since I made those first steps along the Silk Road, vide not just a succinct history of the Silk Road from in the footsteps of great explorers and adventurers my perspective, but also explain how some of the fafrom Marco Polo to Aurel Stein, I have been fascinated miliar characters we have heard about such as Marco by this trading route and particularly by Central Asia. I Polo, Alexander the Great, or Genghis Khan fit into the

NICK ROWAN

32 OCA MAGAZINE

importantly than goals, I hope that members have enjoyed the remarkable journey the organisation is going through and the exchange of new ideas it promotes. It’s a wonderful place for like-minded people from all over the world to connect.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

NR: I consider myself fortunate to have travelled along the Silk Road and be able to visit the region regularly, either on business or for pleasure. I am always struck by the magnitude of the history and the wonderful people and traditions that have emanated the Silk Road. This is what motivates me to explore the region and share my thoughts. I have always found the world a beautiful place, but it is the people and their stories that make it come alive, good and bad.

history. The books also introduce a few lesser-known characters and place the customs and traditions of the people you might meet today into that historical context. The books will interest anyone who wants a brief introduction to the region, or who have travelled there and want to marvel again at the stories and scenery.

For those yet to visit I hope they get an enticing taste of the region where the Silk Road once set its course.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

NR: Starting out in any new career is hard. Nothing comes from wishful thinking; Take action no matter how small the initial steps. Have a realistic goal, and move towards it no matter if the path is straight or winding. Put the effort in. Success usually comes from the experiences you have along the way rather than just reaching an end point. Don’t try and imitate someone else, learn from your own experiences and become better and more experienced than you were before.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

NR: I have sat on ECG’s advisory board and helped set up the original members’ charter. OCA Magazine, as part of ECG, now reaches an even wider creative audience as well as those with an interest in the Eurasian region. I enjoy meeting ECG members and understanding their creative dreams. I hope that my contribution has helped some of them reach those goals. More

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

33

FILM The screenplay “Eyes of Eternity” (Glaza Vechnosty) about the work of the Soviet sculptor Anna Golubkina became one of the winners of the Golden Knight (Zolotoy Vityaz) Literary Forum in 2014.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

DK: It is VGIK that is distinguished by its democracy and focus on the development of the individuality of each student. It is with great warmth that I recall the years of study there. I was lucky enough to learn from top-notch professionals. Leonid Nekhoroshev, Arkady Inin and, of course, my master – Vladislav Romanov.

Together with Vladislav, we wrote a play about Sergei Yesenin - “Until New Cranes” (Do Novykh Zhuravley), which was awarded a diploma of the Golden Knight Literary Forum in 2021. Unfortunately, in August of the same year, my teacher passed away. This is a very terrible loss for me.

DENIS KASPEROV ANY TRUE ART IS UNIQUE AND VALUABLE OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity?

Denis Kasperov: My creative activity is entwined with theater and cinema. By first education, I am a dramatic actor, graduated from the Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theatre School (workshop of Y.M. Solomin), worked in the National Film Actors’ Theatre, starred in films. But I have always had the feeling that my vocation is literary creation, drama. I decided to fulfill my dream – I entered the Gerasimov All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) at the screenwriting faculty, in the workshop of Vladislav Romanov. After graduation, I worked on the scripts for several popular TV shows.

34 OCA MAGAZINE

As a child, I was interested in literary creation and, as often happens, tried to write poetry. My first mentor was the Siberian poet Alexander Beresnev, a talented and very tactful person who found time for my childish naive creations. As an adult, I wrote several poetic works. My poems have been published, and there are victories in poetry competitions, but I do not consider myself as a poet, I am a screenwriter and a playwright.

By the way, there is also a prose work “Pre-War Waltz” (Dovoenny Vals), which won a literary competition dedicated to the 125th anniversary of K.G. Paustovsky.

As literary landmarks for me, there have always been the honesty of Vladimir Vysotsky’s poetry, the lyricism of Sergei Yesenin. And in drama, in the sense of building conflict and characters, this is certainly Shakespeare.

Shakespeare could not afford sluggishness in storytelling; in his time, he would be pelted with rotten vegetables for this. Marking time is generally a big trouble for modern authors. Therefore – Shakespeare. Among the Russian authors, this is Alexander Vampilov.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

DK: I consider the completion of the play “Happiness to you, Chiune” (Schastya Vam, Tiune) to be the main achievement of 2022. I wrote it under the pseudonym Stanislav Dymna and dedicated it to the life and work of the Japanese diplomat of the Second World War, Chiune Sugihara, who saved more than six thousand

people from the Holocaust and was included in the list of Righteous Among the Nations. Literary works based on historical material do not tolerate fuss. I write each play for a long time, on average about a year. It takes several months to study the topic, to work with archives.

The rest of the time I spent on writing and rewriting. A lot of difficulties arise regarding real historical persons.

We know about them only in general terms. But it’s not necessary to retell the story, but to build a drama – it’s always not easy.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

DK: Any true art is unique and valuable. For me, the main qualities of a creative person are self-criticism and honesty.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

DK: I learned about the activities of the Eurasian Creative Guild in 2022 and studied the materials of “Open Eurasia – 2022” with great interest, watched the final events of the competition in social networks and decided to participate in the 2023 contest with my latest play. At the end of December, at an informal gathering in Moscow with the Vice-Chairman of the Eurasian Creative Guild Marat Akhmedzhanov, I met interesting people working in various fields of art, in particular with colleagues in literary creation and film industry.

The dream of every playwright is to see the staging of his play, and it is better to be able to compare different productions. Among my works there is a play for children “How Little Kusya Went Looking for the Alphabet”, which has been staged by more than ten children’s theater groups. And it is a great joy for me to take part in the staging and rehearsals, to be present at these performances, no less significant than the satisfaction from play production for an adult audience.

OCA:What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

DK: Artistic triumphs. However, do not write specifically for contests. Write for yourself, for a loved one, for the reader. Ask yourself questions and answer them as honestly as possible. So, the price of the long-awaited victory will be greater. Remember that many talented people did not receive recognition during their lifetime, but it was their works that remained with us.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

DK: All my life I have been worried about issues of violence, lawlessness and falsehood. Even during the study period, I realized that I wanted to work mainly in the genre of biographical drama – to study a person facing a choice in moments of severe trials. So, there was a Russian Varvara Brusilova and a Japanese Chiune Sugihara. The play “The Shot Sun” (Rasstrelyannoye Solntse) is based on the historical material of the events in Katyn, where the main character is a Pole. It was a great honor for me to receive a letter from the famous Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi with words of appreciation for this work. And the basic idea is simple – eternal values were, are and will be beyond races, nationalities and social-estates.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

35

LITERATURE Even now when I am asked what you would do if you weren’t a lawyer, I reply I would be a writer, if it could pay me more! When it comes to writing I am like a maze designer. I get completely lost in my work.

My mother is the most well-read and knowledgeable person I know. She is often the first reader of my work and my main critic. Unlike other mothers, she is never biassed towards her daughter’s writing, and gives feedback which is thorough and honest (perhaps too honest on occasion!). My role models from the world of writers include Anton Chekov, P.G Wodehouse, Jerome K. Jerome, Dina Rubina and Sergei Dovlatov.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

LS: Making it through the pandemic was one of those achievements. My main accomplishment was my victory in the XI Open Eurasian Book Forum & Literature Festival in the “satire” category. I was really pleased about my story coming first in the prestigious writing contest and it gave me inspiration to write more. Also, it gave me an opportunity to boast about it on social media and make my friends jealous, which is a bonus.

LEAH SIZOVA HUMOUR IS THE BEST PRESCRIPTION FOR MANY ILLS OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Leah Sizova: I am a lawyer (solicitor of England and Wales) but I enjoy writing short funny stories in my spare time. I chose satire and humour because I enjoy having a laugh and I believe that reading something funny can help to uplift one’s mood.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

LS: I always enjoyed writing and found it rewarding.

36 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

LS: When it comes to fiction writing, it is easier to make the reader cry than laugh, which makes my chosen literary subgenres – humour, satire, and comedy - rather complex ones.

“To be a humorist,” P.G. Wodehouse wrote, “one must see the world out of focus. You must, in other words, be slightly cockeyed.”

I think what makes my works unique is the cross-border experience I received – I lived in both Eurasia and Great Britain for substantial periods of time. I absorbed both Central Asian wit and the famous British sense of humour.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

LS: I participated in XI Open Eurasian Book Forum & Literature Festival. I went from being a complete unknown to an award-winning author, thanks to Eurasian Creative Guild. I am pleased that my work had a chance to be read by so many people.

OCA:What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

LS: The famous comedy film director Leonid Gaidai once said “People have such harsh lives, I want to let them laugh”.

Laughter boosts the immune system, triggers the release of endorphins and even helps you to burn calories and live longer! So humour is the best prescription for many ills. My motivation when I write is to make people laugh or at least smile.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

LS: To carry on creating no matter what. Give it a go, send that article, write that story, start that novel and paint that picture. Release your talent into the world!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

37

LITERATURE OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

NT: I embarked on the path of writing mostly spontaneously, unconsciously. This was pushed by some life circumstances and love vicissitudes of youth, as often happens. My first stories were published in Kokshetau by a local newspaper journalist Nikolai Petrovich Butov, who warmly treated my creations. I also consider Olga Borisovna Markova to be my teacher, who, with her lectures and valuable advice, has streamlined my literary consciousness and set a high bar in creativity.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 2022-2023?

NT: In 2022 and 2023, I completed work on three books.The first is “Home Paradise”. The song line “It’s time to go home, to a home paradise” was popular among students when I studied. It describes the events of 1985, when “perestroika” began, and few people thought that the Soviet era would end in six years.The events of the novel unfold in a detective manner. There is the death of the most talented student, to whom everyone predicted a great future. His friend, freshman Alexander Nakhimov, is searching for the killer.

NURLAN TOXANOV WRITERS DO NOT INVENT ESSAYS SO MUCH, BUT FINDING THEM LIKE FOSSILS IN THE GROUND OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Nurlan Toxanov: I was born in the city of Kokshetau, but then received an education at the Moscow Physical and Technical Institute with a degree in “automatic control systems”. At this time I began to write poems, short stories. In 2003, I passed a competition to participate in Olga Borisovna Markova’s master class at the Musaget Public Foundation for the Development of Culture and Humanities. Here I met many future writers and poets of Kazakhstan.

38 OCA MAGAZINE

I also wrote two more detective stories, “Astana-Antalya” and “Swept by Snow”. “Astana-Antalya” is a novel about the modern life of Kazakhstan. The daughter of the head of an American oil company, Linda Cardwell, arrives in the capital of Kazakhstan after her father John Cardwell died in an accident. Linda begins to conduct her own investigation, and in this she is assisted by one of the employees of the Ospan company, a young man, the namesake of the great commander Ospan Batyr.The book “Swept by Snow” also has a detective story. A fourth-year student of the Faculty of Psychology, Salima, at the request of Aunt Kuralai, investigates the death of her husband, Akhmet Omarov, who died under strange circumstances during a trip to Milan.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

NT: In my books, I unwittingly follow the advice of the outstanding writer Stephen King, who believes that writers do not invent essays so much, but finding them like fossils in the ground, and the writer’s to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible. Therefore, in my work I completely submit to inspiration and, following it, I try to dig out the outline of the book without damaging the plot and the event canvas. In my books, I try to reflect the modern life of Kazakh society, with all its achievements and shortcomings.

OCA:Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

NT: I took part in many events of the Eurasian Creative Guild, which were held by Marat Akhmedzhanov, and I constantly participate in Open Eurasia prose and poetry contests.. ECG allowed me to meet many interesting creative people, share my experience with them and learn a lot from them.

of readers, and then my creativity will gain additional goals and a new impetus. I see the work of the Eurasian Creative Guild as a huge help in this.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

NT: Of course, I wish the members of the Guild and all creative people inspiration, creative success and successful implementation of all ideas. Let your thoughts be clear and your hand firm!

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

NT: I hope that my books will find a way to a large number

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

39

FASHION In addition, in our chamber space, we introduce guests to traditional customs and Uzbek cuisine.When viewed as a whole, our centre is a space for human communication. In our gallery, people from different countries meet and create new, interesting creative collaborations. We recently calculated and realised that over the six-year period of the centre’s existence, guests from more than 160 countries visited us. In a way, it can be argued that almost the entire globe has visited our “human house”.

Everyone, a foreign guest or a local resident, can come to us, sit on a tapchan and drink tea, enjoy the atmosphere and chat with someone - all this is free.

Here you can not only buy arts and crafts, clothes or paintings, but also take part in events, learn new skills or just gain new experiences for everyone who aspires to this. Also, we help many aspiring creatives get started and have already grown over 30 fashion and craft brands.

LOLA SAIFI ALMOST THE ENTIRE GLOBE HAS VISITED OUR “HUMAN HOUSE”.

OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity/work.

Lola Saifi: Initially, we launched exclusively as a clothing brand called “Human Wear”. But our interests were much wider than just sewing and selling clothes, so we began to hold fashion shows, master classes and many different educational and creative projects. Therefore, we are not only manufacturers or artisans, we position ourselves as a cultural centre, because on the territory of “Human House”, we also provide a platform for exhibitions - for artists, for concerts - for musicians, for performances - for poets, for lectures - for art critics.

40 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

LS: My mother dreamed of being an architect and developing in art since childhood. And, although in her life she did not succeed in fulfilling her dream, we always had books about artists, we went to the museum and were always interested in art. As a result, my older sister trained as an architect, and I studied as a restorer of architectural decoration. But now both I and she create designer clothes.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

LS: We have had many events over the past year. We are very active and every day we have a lot of creative projects. But the main one, probably, is the purchase of the house in which our gallery is located. It was quite a big financial goal, especially for a cultural project. But we were able to achieve one of our big ambitious goals, undoubtedly, it was a victory for our entire team.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

LS: It is difficult to talk about ourselves in this way, we just really love what we do and we bring it to every person, and it doesn’t matter if it’s someone who crosses the threshold of our “Human House” gallery

or wears our “Human Wear” clothes. We value every person and their work, we treat everyone with care, with whom our paths in the gallery meet, and we try to help people in the realisation of their creative plans.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

LS: We are glad to be friends with the Eurasian Creative Guild and are happy to provide our platform for events, which are attended by many creative and talented people, with whom we begin to make friends and interact with pleasure. The Guild’s project brings together artists from all over the world and helps creative individuals to realise themselves in the global art space. This is a very important mission, which is very consonant with our gallery.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

LS: I love to create. Creative ideas constantly come to my mind and I want to embody them. It gives me pleasure to see the results of my work. Goals are achieved or not achieved, and new ones are set. Now my goal is to improve the gallery. We want to build a museum, a library, a guest house and a cafe here. And also I have personal goals related to the development of my son and my personal life.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

LS: Be true to your dreams, let your creativity combine self-realisation, beauty, and success!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

41

ACADEMY So, Born in 1949 in Siberia, to a family of financial workers Barnaul State Pedagogical Institute (English) Moscow State Pedagogical Institute (High School Teacher Course) Israeli Pedagogical College Learning…It is endless…I am grateful to my parents and the Universe for my inquisitive mind and conviction that I can achieve anything I want, no matter what.

My creativity is based on a strong family foundation – my husband, two sons, and six grandchildren. My Life in the land of my ancestors – Israel.

The nomination “Man of Israel – 2014” for a book with a student and my Florida colleague Mrs. Elizabeth Fortun, which led to social recognition - a proud mom (with Mrs. Fortun) of our main educational character, Professor Froggie. These programs turned into the franchise EFU – English Friendly University and about 200 educational items in various formats.

My membership of ECG - time for learning and teaching, writing more books, publishing them, and letting them go to the Universe, the place where they all have come from OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

PAULINA GEBL-KRAVTS TEACHER TOUCHED BY THE HAND OF GOD… “If your plan is for one year, plant rice; If your plan is for ten years, plant trees; If your plan is for a hundred years, Educate children.”

— Confucius OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity/work.

Paulina Gebl-Kravts: What events turned me to be what I am now…More likely, all events of my life; however, everyone - friends, enemies, even frenemies – keep calling me the Teacher touched by the hand of God…

42 OCA MAGAZINE

“In this brave new world, your knowledge is new money.”

— Robert Kiyosaki, The author of Rich Kid Smart Kid PG: I have several role models: my school English teacher who helped me catch up with the classes after my illness. She was the first one to notice my interest in languages. I have just decided to follow her path. Later, I fell in love with R. Kiyosaki’s programs.Then came the time for Robert G. Allen and Mark Victor Hansen with their magnificent books, which I read through. Many of my students follow my example and make these authors’ books their desktop…

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

PG: The 2022 year was marked by the beginning of my studies at the online writing school GetpublishED by Irina Gusinskaya. In 2023, I got a generous gift from the Universe joining the Guild of Creative People! Looking forward to being useful to it, its members, and Eurasia.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

PG: I presume they are the programs, impact, influence, and class atmosphere. Add to this teacher behavior formula, and you will understand what makes us unique. I think this breathtaking photo of one of my first students in Israel shows us that the students, teachers, and programs are CONGRUENT! OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already participated in, and how ECG influences your creativity and success in your work.

PG: I am still looking around, but I am doing it with wide-open eyes. What do I see? A bottomless well of creativity; a magnificent blend of cultures, traditions, great ideas, and incredible projects…However, people here are above all! I cannot wait to join all of you! By the way, ECG has already ignited the spark of a fantastic project in our students, my fellow writers, and me.

Now we are making the final additions to the multi-authored International Book of Crosswords - ten kids, and four fellow writers. This is our future bestseller!

Our co-authors are fellow writers, young writers from the 2nd to 6th grades, Professor Froggie, his learned secretary, Miss Snake, and a charming kitty of one of the authors! See you at the OPEN EURASIA! OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

PG: EFU Anthem (English Friendly University) is my greatest trigger. My colleagues and I believe it is the right time for teens to build “a million connections, a million of friends”, as they are still learning. We, the NET, mainly NEW ENGLISH TEACHERS, just help

them find their way into the future. The students do it by acquiring English through modern modules – Basic English,Writing Class with Professor Froggie,Young Millionaires Club, and Vacation English. Therefore, the aim of my creativity is to help grow citizens of today’s different and turbulent world by providing them with the necessary skills.

EFU SONG Froggie, Israel, USA Speaking English all the way!

Today we are students and chose to learn; Tomorrow – start a business and need a million!

Come, a friend, Give a hand, Give a paw, Let us learn more!

A million dollars, shekels, or yens?

No, a million connections, a million friends!

Come, a friend!

Give a hand!

Give a paw!

Let us learn more!

OCA:What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their careers?

PG: Be grateful for your creativity! Be proud of it!

Give more of this wealth to the world by serving people! Keep “a treasure box” for your creative insights and AHAs. Their day will surely come! Do not sit on this wealth! Invite people to your creativity circle! Finally, my AHA, i.e. insight, eureka, is that the world is not black and white but rainbow-coloured!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

43

FILM Central Asian and CIS countries in February this year .

Overall, I mastered professions such as a film director and I won an award from British Council for my short documentary film “Man in my life” in 2014, as a film producer I co-authored a book with two most prominent female film producers in Kazakhstan Gulnara Abikeyeva and Aliya Uvalzhanova, in 2021. I have become a masseuse of the atlas-prophilax method, I teach English in an interactive way as I am TEFL certified instructor, and I am an entrepreneur. Starting in 2015, I started my own company Association of Films Development and Promotion and I present Kazakhstani made films to international film festivals. Furthermore, I run my own project titled Engmarion in education, which is directed to 50 million teenagers in Central Asian countries in making them choose an online profession and find their path in life, while mastering English language.

DARYA BELKINA DESIRE TO HELP YOUNG MINDS TO PROGRESS IN LIFE OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity.

Darya Belkina: Hello, my name is Darya Belkina, and I am half Kazakh and half Ukrainian. My background as problem-solver in the United Space Team community of astronauts from 2021, I earned my positive psychology degree in 2022, English-Russian language interpreter since 2003, business administration and legal professional degree from 2008. All are coming in handy, when handling daily tasks that I face at Interface & Nora, where I started as account manager for eight

44 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

DB: In April 2020, I have finally completed my project that was dormant for 12 years and that is the blog on education abroad in Russian language, in 30 countries of the world. In July of 2019, I met Rik Vera, who was making a presentation for our corporate team of 64 sales managers from 140 countries and he told us about the digital tsunami. The main idea behind the Engmarion platform with professions of the future is to become a surfer on the digital tsunami wave. Whether you can and know how to surf on a surfboard does not matter for this tsunami. It means a lot if you know advanced internet resource browsing and searching, MOOCs and online professions as 100 million people will be laid off from their jobs by 2025. I act every day to make the digital revolution hitting Kazakhstan and CIS countries as smooth as possible.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

DB: In 2023, on 12th of February, I turned 37 years old.

I consider my birthday to be the major achievement as I can work. I am loved by my husband and son very much, I am progressing with the Engmarion platform that is supported by Microsoft and by Harvard University Initiative: Aspire Leaders Program. I have published my poetry books and I am on my way to success with the mission of online professions jungle to be handled easily by Kazakh and other Central Asian countries teenagers.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

DB: Sincere desire to help young minds to progress in life.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

DB: I visited official events and to me, the networking is the best feature of the ECG. Travel opportunities across different countries is another great feature of the guild and the initiatives as well. I seriously started to consider making paintings as I feel an urge for it, since I joined the guild.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

DB: Now that I am a mother myself, I personally find it difficult for kids to find their path in life regardless of their age. Our son is 10 years old, and he knows how to bake bread, speed reading in Russian and he likes to play with his friends outside. He is also an English language instructor himself and he runs his own budget for buying toys and making payments on mobile apps.

He is also an authority as he protects girls and doesn’t let older boys to offend younger boys in his neighbourhood.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

DB: Everyone who is in some way related to arts and crafts or film industry shall enter as it opens for every member of the guild new horizons, allows for networking and initiative as residencies in Europe and Thailand are great ways to refuel one’s creativity by changing location and enjoying life.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

45

ART the costumes to the traditional Sakha epic play - “olonkho” “Kyys Debiliye”.

In recent years I have taken part in exhibitions as an artist-painter. My favourite themes are “Maternity” and “Shadows of forgotten ancestors”. I try to unite past and present, national and universal. One can see my paintings and drawings in Sakha National Art gallery and some private collections in Moscow, Paris and Reykjavik.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

LG: My path was destined from the very beginning. Though my father was a famous Yakut poet and playwright, he was fond of drawing and wanted me to become an artist. Father dreamed that someday his daughter will design his books and plays. My educational journey was rather long from the local Art school to the Theatrical Academy. After graduation from the Academy in Saint-Petersburg I came to my native city of Yakutsk and worked together with different opera and drama directors. Since those hard-working times I appreciate an inquisitive mind, a thoughtfulness and a self-striving for improvement in the profession.

LENA GOGOLEVA STRONG ROOTS OF MY CREATIVE “TREE” OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity/work Lena Gogoleva: My name is Ms. Lena Gogoleva, a graduator of the Saint-Petersburg Theatrical Academy, a theatre artist. I live and work in the Republic of Saka (Yakutia) in Northern Russia. I am a designer of numerous plays at the Yakut State Opera and Ballet theatre and of the local Sakha Academical theatre , Russian and foreign playwrights such as Anton Chekhov, Chinghis Aitmatov, William Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw, Karel Chapek and others. Also I designed my father’s – a Sakha National writer Ivan Gogolev’s historical plays “Dygyn Darkhan” & “A Black Crane”. My professional achievements were marked by different badges, including a diploma of the Russian theatrical Golden Mask Award for

46 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: What is your main achievement in 2022-2023?

LG: In 2022 our Sakha Academical theatre was on tours in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, devoted to the 100-years anniversary of our Sakha Republic’s foundation. ‘’King Lear’

by Shakespeare was on the tour repertoire put on by famous Yakut director Mr. Andrei Borisov. The play was a great success! As a costumes’ designer I was happy to receive positive feedback from my discerning colleagues and metropolitan audience.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

LG: I am a creative person and work in three genres as a theatrical designer, an artist-painter and a jewellery designer. The ancient Yakut national culture and rich oral and modern literature are strong roots of my creative “tree” and give it a bright national colouring. I think this is the uniqueness and peculiarity of my works.

OCA:Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

LG: I am a “young” member of ECG (London), starting in 2022. Two of my works were published in “VOICES OF FRIENDS: POETRY AND ART 2023” magazine. I feel grate-

ful for the great number of positive feedback. My professional and friend’s circles have been widened. This miscellany gives poets and artists of different nations a unique chance to remain in history! The world is huge and gives us a lot of opportunities! I thank the Guild’s organisers for a wonderful chance for me.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

LG: They say: “Life is fleeting”. It seems to me that from time to time it is worth pondering what will remain after us. As for me I’d like to leave after myself as much as possible Beauty in the wider term of this meaning. I believe that the human

soul always yearns for beauty.We look for it everywhere – in landscapes, art, music, clothes, furniture, flowers, relations, feelings, love, religion and in ourselves.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

LG: I wish for all the ECG’ members and other creative people, just starting their careers to work in Peace! God bless Peace, Kindness and Health! Other things we can do and earn ourselves.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

47

POETRY from different fields. From constant hobbies - horse racing, customizing (I draw individual prints on clothes to order), pole dance, hiking and wine on Fridays. I’m kidding again.

My poetry is the language of communication of my soul.Any genre is subject. I like the style of the 18th and 19th centuries. Despite this, in music I prefer grime and sometimes rock and roll. I often write love poems from a man’s perspective. This is how I show what feelings and words women deserve from men. I’m not afraid to tell the truth, I’m not afraid to grow old, look ridiculous or make a mistake. I believe in myself, in the power of thought, in science and art, and in you, dear new friend!

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

DG: Every day that I live is my teacher. I will not count past days)) These life lessons are saturated with the experience of other people, knowledge, events. And with each new teacher made me understand that I should share my thoughts, my soul with the world through what I do best - writing poetry.

DARYA GONCHAROVA A SAMURAI HAS NO GOAL, ONLY A PATH OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Darya Goncharova: I’m a Genius, a billionaire, a playboy, a philanthropist… But that’s in the future)) Hello!

I’m Daria and I’m a poet from Kazakhstan. By education I am a specialist in international relations and speak several languages. Analyst, good psychologist. I’m a realist, but at the same time a dreamer, or as I say: “I was born with a cold mind, but with a hot heart!” I have been writing poetry since early childhood. I will nor paint creative achievements, I will only say that there are many of them and they are at a high level. I have a lot of hobbies. I always need new information

48 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

DG: In a creative life I began to publish, in Russian, collections of contemporary poets. I even have fans lol. Really important events took place inside the consciousness, which I am proud of.What else ... I stopped drinking coffee)) OCA: What is the main feature that makes for you and your art/work unique?

DG: I don’t write poems, it’s my soul that writes them.

These are my thoughts, messages and perceptions. I don’t have a single empty verse. But I always say that they are only half full: when the reader finds himself in them, then the glass is full and the masterpiece is ready!

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

DG: I was at creative meetings. I’m new to the guild, but I’ve already become attached to my soul. The Guild is the home of my creative soul. I constantly want to

bring something good to this house, more poems, people, glory, to make it better!

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

DG: A samurai has no goal, only a path. Each poet is a warrior in his own way, a samurai with a feather instead of a katana. And if the path traveled leaves traces in the hearts of people and literature, then everything was not in vain. This is the motivation for me!

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

DG: I give advice like a poet. Btw this is my first poem in English. As you can see with the guild, I develop without even thinking about it. Never lie to yourself. Don’t give up everything for love, otherwise when it leaves, you will be left with nothing. Make friends mind and heart then you hack this life. Don’t thank the universe for everything. And I thank you for your attention!

Advice You must to learn an important lesson: If you want to find your special way You should talk to God as a person and never as his slave!

Morning starts with falling stars.

Happiness starts from loving yourself.

If you were born a piece of art Talk with him as a person and never as his slave !

It doesn’t matter you are adult or child Let’s find your magic wave!

You should be one system with your mind and never be his slave!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

49

LITERATURE That’s why all my work as a writer took the form and place here, in France. I write poetry, essays, literary articles, much has already been published in the media, magazines, almanacs in France, Russia, Germany, Latvia, Israel, Canada, USA, United Kingdom, poetry in 25 almanacs and 4 anthologies. I have written a large novel in French language, scripts, two of which were made into fiction films. I also took part in the production of a documentary film (directed by V. Kara, Evgrafov Productions, France – USA). My spheres of creative activity are literature and cinema.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

SO: It wasn’t me who chose my path, but my recognition as a writer chose me. I wanted to be an actress in my youth. I applied to two theatrical institutes in Moscow, but I didn’t make it through selection. Finally, I finished the Faculty of Philology at the State University of Humanities and Technology and later the Screenwriting Course at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography, and I studied at the Sorbonne, a master in philosophy. My literary talents were detected early, while I was still a teenager. My path to real literary creativity zigzagged, and I really started writing at the age of 25.

Since then, it has been my life’s work.

SOPHIA ORANSKAIA THE WISDOM OF WORDS, ACTIONS AND DECISIONS, HONOUR AND DIGNITY OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Sophia Oranskaia: I was born in the suburbs of Moscow. My career didn’t start with literature, but with cinema. I worked at the main Soviet film studio “Mosfilm” during perestroika and the first years after USSR collapse, on productions directed by well-known movie makers Eldar Ryazanov, Andrey Konchalovsky, Sergey Kolosov, Vladimir Tumaev and others. In the early 90’s I moved to France with my French husband, a sound engineer, we met on a French Russian film.

50 OCA MAGAZINE

My parents and a number of other family members are examples in my life. My family roots are very important to me. Poets Alexander Pushkin and Anna Akhmatova are an example of fortitude and dignity, directors whose films I worked for, Eldar Ryazanov is an example of humanism and sincerity, Sergey Kolosov is an example of honesty, devotion in love and his profession.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

SO: The most important achievement for all of us now, including myself, in this difficult international situation, is the ability to maintain intelligence, the wisdom of words, actions and decisions, honour and dignity. I believe I have succeeded. The most important achievements in 2022 – 2023 are the recognition of my talent at the AEA international competition from the International Academy of Contemporary Arts (Russia), where I was awarded the title of laureate and three gold medals for my essay “France: seven years of reflections” and for two poetry cycles, as well as being elected an Honorary Member of the Academy of Contemporary Arts.

I was shortlisted in this year’s literary competition

from the Peter Academy of Sciences and Arts (Russia) and just recently received a new award – the Order of Merit in National Poetry from the International Association of the Arts (Germany). My poems have been published in eight almanacs and two anthologies during this period.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

SO: I think that the uniqueness and the main value of my work lies in the innovation and renewal of forms and the linguistic structure itself (word construction, neologisms) in the field of poetry, above all. I have expressed myself most fully and brightly in poetry. There have already been many successes and awards. In the field of cinema my successes and awards are in front of me.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

SO: I participated in 2021 in one of the Eurasian Creative Guild competitions, in the Publishing category. This year I will also take part in two Guild competitions.

There are results to come, but it’s too early to tell.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

SO: Every kind of creativity has one main motivation – self-expression. And the intention for myself is to bring through my creative work as much light, goodness and love as possible into this world, where there is a lot of darkness.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

SO: I wish the members of the Guild wisdom, to maintain their dignity under these current difficult situations, to continue to create for the sake of peace and good. And to those who are beginning their creative way, I wish them to believe in their strength and to work hard and persistently on themselves and their creations, only in this way can they achieve great results.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

51

ART / LITERATURE to paint pictures. I have been drawing since childhood.

I give almost all my paintings to relatives and friends.

Also I have been writing poems since my youth. But did not dare to publish them. So my poems have been gathering dust on the table for more than 30 years. Maybe someday I’ll publish them too.

RAISA BELENKAYA

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

RB: I am a person who has always believed that creativity is enjoyment. I couldn’t afford to enjoy it for a long time and devoted most of my life to commerce - In the difficult business of exporting metal. Although singing, drawing and speaking, according to the great Arkady Raikin, I started at the same time. So today, devoting myself to art, I can enjoy it.This is the period I’ve been waiting for. This is the metamorphosis of my life.

As for the example or the teacher... This is a constituent variable depending on age and state of mind. I preferred the classics. I have read John Galsworthy and his “Forsyte saga”. I began to lean towards more modern writers. Not so long ago I discovered Alexander Vampilov. Today, for me, he is one of the most beloved authors, excellently revealing the different facets of human characters in everyday life. His genre is close to me. Unfortunately, he passed away young and did not have time to please us with a large number of books.

But what he managed to write is worthy of the classics....

Also I like Francoise Sogan,Teffi, and Zoshchenko. Never get bored of Agatha Christie. I love the sharp humour of Ilf and Petrov. Of the modern, of course, Boris Akunin.

OCA: What’s your main achievement in 20222023?

CREATIVITY IS ENJOYMENT RB: I consider my main achievement in 2022-2023 to OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself be courageous. In everything! I changed the vector of life radically. Changed the place of residence and the and your creative activity/work.

Raisa Belenkaya: I don’t like talking about myself. I’ll purpose of life. I tried my hand at writing and my book try to keep within five or six phrases… I was born was nominated for the ECG (London) in 2022. Unforin Kazakhstan and lived in this beautiful country until tunately, I didn’t get the main prize, but I think it’s good the age of 18. Then I moved to Leningrad (now St.Pe- for the first time. If it’s already possible to muster up tersburg). There I got married, gave birth to a daughter, the courage and single out some peculiarity in my creand graduated from the university. In 2020 I moved to ative works, then I dare to describe them as a kind neighbouring Estonia where I studied for a master’s de- of symbiosis of surprise, humour and I can’t separate gree at the faculty of Russian as a Foreign Language at them. the University of Tartu. The only faculty in Russian. At the same time I started writing a book and continued OCA: Tell us, please, about the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have

52 OCA MAGAZINE

already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creative and success in your work?

RB: The very fact that I got into ECG (London) is already a great success. It must be admitted that there is no such organisation anywhere else. I didn’t find it even though I was looking. The possibilities of the Eurasian Creative Guild are unique. Even just participating in the competition is already a good springboard. I have been to 4 major events held by ECG(London) in London.

In November 2022 at the awards ceremony for the finalists of the literary festival. In the same year I was at the presentation of the books of the winners. In 2023 I was at the presentation of the almanac “Thread” and on May 30 at the closing of the film’s festival. Creative caring people gather in the Guild. When you meet like-minded people and see their work, it inspires new creatively. There is such an atmosphere here that you just want to develop even more.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

RB: The goal is not to deviate from the given path. I have always felt the need for creative development. I was born like this. My dream is not a resounding success with fanfare and a red carpet, but a quiet creation somewhere in the countryside with a cup of coffee.

The main thing is to be in demand. Isn’t that great?! It’s quiet happiness. This is what my dream looks like.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

RB: I want to wish them what I wish for myself: dreams, faith in yourself, love for everything that deserves love.

And develop your talent. I also wish prosperity to our Guild, because the more successful the Guild, the stronger the resonance in our career.

P.S. Let me show you my pairings (acrylic, canvas). I hope they make you feel good!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

53

ART exceptional colleagues on significant projects for the city. Subsequently, I worked for 3 years at the administration of Sofia Municipality as Deputy Mayor of one of the largest districts, Mladost, with responsibilities in ecology, education, sports, culture, social activities, and healthcare.The job was highly responsible and demanding. For the past 3 years, I have been working in the private sector, running my own landscape design firm.

The projects I have worked on range from single-family residential buildings, multi-unit complexes, buildings for public services and offices, sports halls, children’s and sports playgrounds, retail parks, commercial buildings and complexes, industrial facilities, parks, and gardens.

In addition to my design work, I am also involved in teaching activities as an honorary lecturer at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia, and at the Agricultural University in Plovdiv, where I am completing my doctoral studies on the topic of “Typology and Methods for Noise Protection through the Use of Green Plantings in the Urban Environment.”

Through my extensive professional and academic experience, my goal is to integrate the practical aspects of architecture and landscape design with educational and scientific aspects, sharing knowledge and expertise with future professionals and researchers in the field.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

MG: I completed my secondary education with a profile in fine arts, and to this day, I engage in drawing and creating decorative panels in my free time. The combination of drawing and mathematics led me to choose I FIND INSPIRATION IN NEW the field in which I practise. During my university studAND DIVERSE PROJECTS ies, we had exceptional professors who inspired us, but personally, I find inspiration in new and diverse proOCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself jects. Each project is unique, not only due to the surand your creative activity / work rounding environment but also because of the specific Maria Grozeva: My name is Maria Petrova Grozeva. requirements of the investor.

I was born in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, but currently, I live and work in Sofia, Bulgaria. I am married and have OCA: What is your main achievement in 2022one child, and I am fortunate to have a wonderful life 2023? partner.

MG: As an achievement, I can mention that this year I was honoured with the title of Landscape Architect My career started with work in the United States, where of the Year for 2022. The project I participated in was I spent nearly 2 years. Following that, I worked for al- a residential building complex in the Mladost residenmost 10 years at “Sofproekt - General Urban Plan” in tial area, Sofia. The investor behind the project is HARSofia, where I had the opportunity to collaborate with MONY GROUP, a company with numerous successful

MARIA GROZEVA

54 OCA MAGAZINE

projects in Bulgaria, particularly in the field of hotel complexes.

this year I became a member of the Eurasian Creative Guild in London.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

MG: The creative approach and meeting deadlines are the main priorities in my work as a landscape architect.

I believe that each project should be approached individually in terms of designing the surrounding space, but in combination with all the involved disciplines to create a beautiful outcome. As for my hobby - drawing - I create unique things that are appreciated by the people around me, and that brings me satisfaction.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

MG: My goal is to continue developing in my profession and expand beyond the local community. My motivation, first and foremost, is my family and, of course, satisfied clients. As for my passion for painting, gaining exposure to a wider audience is also a goal for me.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

MG: I have not yet participated in any events, but I am interested in engaging with intelligent individuals with diverse creative orientations. That is why

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

MG: I wish them, regardless of their field of activity, to arm themselves with patience, to invest effort, and to never stop enriching themselves with new knowledge.

Success will inevitably come.You have the support of all of us - the members of the Guild, because it is crucial to communicate with like-minded individuals.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

55

POETRY my Metaphorical Associative Pictures “The Inner Light” that I use in my psychological practice.

I started to write my poetry when I was at school.

I used to be a Math teacher and did my research in Math Education to collaborate teaching Mathematics and using Psychological approach and methods to help to grow my students in a professional and private life.

To be a teacher and psychologist I found that poetry gives the opportunity to express feelings, emotions, and understanding of the inner world. Usually, it is very difficult to realise what you feel, experience and how it influences you and your life. I consider poetry as a beautiful part of culture but as a poetry therapy as well.

Creating poems helps to realise your growth, to be familiar with your inner dreams and real desires.

I found out that it is important to take a pen and a paper in a moment when a poem is coming with the first strokes. I am very thankful that I can have this beautiful language to communicate with our world.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

IL: I am very happy to share that my father is a role model for me. I like the way he speaks and shares his thoughts. It is always very clear what he needs to explain and to share with other people. He has his own unique philosophy of life and the way to express it.

INDIRA LAKTAEVA THERE IS ALWAYS AN OPEN DOOR OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Indira Laktaeva: I am Indira Shavkatovna Laktaeva, grew up in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, currently living in New York. I have been a poet since my childhood. When I was a child, I liked to draw, and I liked Mathematics. As a psychologist and educator with PhD in Math Education, I consider poetry as a form of creative self-expression and interaction with the world. I am also a co-author of a book of psychologists and the author of psychological techniques, methods and scientific publications on pedagogy. I like to take photos and create

56 OCA MAGAZINE

My father, Shavkat Abbasovich Miralimov is a Candidate of History, and he is a public figure as well in Journalism in Uzbekistan. He published the first book “About Navruz” to support Navruz celebration and traditions coming back. Just to listen to what he was talking to me or to other people was very educating for me.

My father was the one who encouraged me to keep my poems and publish it as a book. I published my poetry “About Navruz” in the newspaper of Uzbekistan as my father advised me as well.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

IL: The main achievement in 2022-2023 is that I was lucky to have been participating in the “Voices of Friends: Poetry and Art” Almanac 2023 with my poetry in Russian and English and in the “Voices of Friends” poetry competition. I created a book of my poetry

named “The Way Back Home” that I wrote during my life and participated under the name MirIndi.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

IL: The uniqueness of my creativity is in sharing my world vision and experience growing up in Uzbekistan and living in the other country and having experience of psychological and pedagogical research at the same time. I consider my creativity as a reflection of our world and philosophy of real life. People after reading my poetry shared with me that they found a unique philosophy of life and it helps them to understand their own feelings and actual thoughts.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

IL: I was very happy to participate as a poet in “Voices of Friends: Poetry and Art” Almanac 2023 that my father shared with me. Participation in ECG helped me to structure my creativity and share it with the world.

I have seen other creative people through ECG publications.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

IL: My motivation is to grow with my creativity and my goal is to share with other people and to be a part of their growth.

OCA:What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

IL: I wish to the members of the Guild and other creative people who are just starting their way to accept your creativity as unique and do what comes from your hand. And there is always an open door for the best way for you.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

57

PUBLIC FIGURE OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

AV: It all happened out of the blue, working as a waiter, I realised that the restaurant business is where I am fulfilled. I want to acknowledge the person I met on my life’s journey. My role model, mentor, and overall person who helped me to become a professional - Bezrukova Elena Arkadevna.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

AV: As I see, my main achievements are the results of my work on the “Dom u ozera” project, and the award I received as “Best Restaurant Expert 2023”.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

AV: My inner idealist does not allow me to mis-step and brings everything to perfection – that’s exactly my main feature.

ARTEM VOLSKY MY INNER IDEALIST DOES NOT ALLOW ME TO MIS-STEP OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Artem Volsky: I, Artem Evgenievich Volsky, have devoted eleven years of my life to the restaurant business.

During this period of time, I have reached many heights.

Despite this, I continue to learn new things and teach others by sharing my experience. I started out on a small path, but now I am reaping the fruits of my labour.

I am a sommelier and expert in the restaurant business.

At the same time, I am involved in staff training, teaching the bar craft and leading various projects beyond.

I’m successful, because without the love of my business it would be different.

58 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

AV: Eurasian Creative Guild provides me with opportunities for development and for reaching my creative potential. I am very grateful to the circumstances of fate that I joined their ranks. To date, I have not participated in major events, but I try to be involved in solving current issues on a daily basis.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

AV: My motivation is the results I receive in the process of my activity. I consider my aim to be to propel the hospitality of Kazakhstan to the world level.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

AV: I wish the Eurasian Creative Guild further development, for the ranks of creative individuals to increase, and I wish newcomers a brilliant and successful beginning. It’s important to remember that great things start out small. The first actions are already a bold step towards your dream.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

59

LITERATURE me. Later, I set myself up in the editorial of the newspaper in the town of Ali Bayramli where along with my newspaper endeavors, I also published my verse. A year after I became a student of the journalism faculty of the Azerbaijan State University. I was really fortunate there. In our group six poets were studying. Today, in the passing of time, I already appear as the author of 15 volumes of poetry and publicity books, of which two have been translated into English, and also noted as published in literary journals and almanacs. At the same time, I continue to work on my next book “His Lordship from the St Petersburg Gateway” and every day I am writing new poetry. Since the beginning of 1990, I have been living in Israel.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space of life?

BG: Significant for me was the meeting with the outstanding poet Evgeni Alexandrovich Yevtushenko, my acquaintance with him occurred in the summer of 1966.The meeting did not go without trace for me, and it worked for me as if a catalyst for my creative works.

BORIS GUBERMAN IT SEEMS TO ME THAT IN READING ME MY READERS WILL NOT BE BORED. OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity/work?

Boris Guberman: To talk about oneself is both simple and at the same time complicated. I am 77 years old. I was born and spent a large part of my life in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. My creative credo was always poetry and publicity, but nowadays I’m a poet, writer, publicist, photographer and inventor. Once upon finishing school at the wedding of relatives, I was impressed by an elderly man who from time to time read only poetical dedications composed by him. I also decided to try my own strengths. From that everything began for

60 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

BG: My main achievement in 2022 was the release into the world through the Lambert Publishing House of my book The Story of the Armenians in the Eyes of the Non-Armenians,’ Participation as a member of the international poetry jury ESENI TSOTSI, happening in Bulgaria and also gaining a few diplomas for participation in poetry projects. Entering the Eurasian creative guild was significant for me and my nomination as a finalist in the publicity sphere for the XI OPEN LITERATURE FESTIVAL & BOOK FORUM. OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

BG: The particulars of my art are that there is no such school for me that has a place to be in the traditional poetical art. But it is interesting to work in the direction I chose and my readers find my work interesting for themselves. It touches on my publicity works. What was interesting for me is the research process, which brought me during the work on these creations to interesting conclusions unlike any others. So in general, during the work process on such a small work as “Conception: Socioeconomic Formations and the Markets Related to Them” (the Lambert Publishing House, Russian-English version) I was fortunate to make sci-

entific discoveries linked to the successive changes in the socio-economic formations. My invention of the ‘economic model: the theory, the method of dreams and reality’ is confirmed in Israel and the Library of Congress in the USA. Each work will have an enduring meaning in the development of human society as well as interesting notions about political, historical, social and economical problems I managed to make in my remaining books too. It seems to me that in reading me my readers will not be bored.

OCA:Tell us please about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

BG: 2022 was significant for me. I became a member of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London). In this year I became a finalist of the nomination “publicity” and I was invited to take part in the XI Open Eurasian Literature Festival and Book Forum, taking place in December in Melbourne (Australia).

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

BG: The motivation for my creation appears as life and all its manifestations, my aim is to display it in all its fullness. The more so that as a result, these books of mine have been released in different publications in the world.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the guild and other creative people just starting their career?

BG: Whatever the members of the guild are practicing, they should display life in all its manifestations in their creation. And these are the themes and the subjects. I am not talking about this accidentally because in displaying life we literally act in it. In the same way we educate our audience and give a push for new creation.

And therefore I would wish all new authors to be active. And to write, write, write.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

61

ART a lot of different courses. I love learning in general. It gives me “wings”, it excites me. The world will never be boring for you if you keep learning. I love reading, especially psychology and Japanese philosophy. It often inspires me to create and lights up the ideas in my head.

At the very end of 2019 on Christmas day my first children’s book “Adventures of Cat Alfred” got published and was sold in 15 countries. Currently I am writing and recording poems and songs in English as well as in Russian, creating video clips for some of them, painting with different mediums: oil, acrylic, pencil, watercolour, gauche, pastels.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

YP: I think I am still searching and discovering my path.

I did not grow up in a creative family, so my hobbies were not taken very seriously. I started my creative path quite late in life. Luckily, I keep meeting more and more creative people and I love it. I do not think I have one person in particular, but I keep learning from different people what I like and what I am lacking.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

YP: I completed the second part of the children’s book of “Adventures of Cat Alfred” and I have made a recording and video clip for my beloved song “I fall in love with You” or “Higher”.

YULIANA PROTASOVA MY ART IS MY OXYGEN OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Yuliana Protasova: My name is Yuliana Protasova.

Originally I am Russian from my mother’s side and Ukrainian from my father’s side. I was born in Voronezh. Currently I have three degrees and have lived almost for 20 years in London. I was creative from my early childhood, writing plays, poems and drawing. The big change in my life happened when my father died almost 10 years ago, when I realised that I have no time to lose, as I always really wanted to create. Quarantine time was massively productive for me. I completed

62 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

YP: Emotions. The ones I am living through and implementing into my art and the ones people are getting from my art. Originally I started to paint when I was overwhelmed with my emotions. I even created a series of works called Emotions, where I expressed each emotion with only one flower of Hydrangea, using only different colours. The colour of Hydrangea flower depends on the type of soil and components of water, so it is like a Chameleon in the floral world.

Before my book got published, I sent it to the children’s home. It was very well received. I have got many letters and drawings from kids. I touched my heart so much that I cried and realised that what I am doing is touching hearts and it is definitely worth doing. And I fully realise the responsibility it holds.

When friend of a friend heard my poem: “I love myself in any case”, it seeded hope into her heart after the divorce and she realised that the life is going on. It gave

me the feeling that my art is important even if it affects only one person’s life.

The process of creating my paintings is very magical to me. Firstly, the image is being born into my head. It takes time to blossom and then at some point I create the painting and only after that I realise what my art is telling me, that is why I call my art - The Art of Subconscious.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

YP: It is priceless to become a part of the creative community. My poem was in the top 10 in 2020 and it gave me more confidence.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

YP: I guess I have inner motivation. I feel excited before it starts and it gives me a lot of energy. When I heard before that someone can not live without painting, I didn’t really believe it. Now I know myself very well that it is an oxygen for me.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

YP: To trust themselves, to listen to their hearts and souls, to allow life lead you in order to blossom your talent, to learn constantly and to be brave to show your creations to the world and believe that if your talent was given to you, someone really needs to hear/ see/feel it and, of course, to enjoy their ability to create.

Instagram: yuliana_protasova Photo: Sean Archer, Julia Xriptan

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

63

PUBLIC FIGURE studying the experience of many developed countries, I understand that human resources cannot be accumulated in one decade, but at the same time, I understand that our country should make a bigger breakthrough in the development of creative industries.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

OS: My short but very eventful journey began in China when I was still not at all a mature student. I was invited to work as the manager of the organisation of the Asian Summer Olympic Games in Guangzhou in 2008. From that moment on, I realised how major events can attract foreign tourists. Upon arrival home, I understand that no one knows about our country and our region despite all its strengths. But those who found out were admiring our historical and natural sights.

Then, in 2012, we created the country’s first Shymkent Tourist information centre. I was inspired to create it by a Canadian, Yuzhanet Morin, who was a teacher at Miras University, where I studied at that time. She inspired me to create new projects and meanings related to the tourism industry. It was she who first made me develop tourism. And her love for a foreign country made me a true patriot, to be proud of my country and work to show it to the whole world.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

OS: In my opinion, this period was special not only for me, but for every citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Our country has entered a new era of reformation. It can be said that our country has emerged from the shell of the Soviet system. Kazakhstan has become stronger ONLY THE BEST THING CAN BE PRICELESS. and now everyone has the opportunity to reveal their creative potential. The younger generation feel the imOCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself portance of their voice. In this difficult period, at the inand your creative activity / work vitation of the executive secretary of the party Amanat Olzhas Shintayev: The most important thing for me Askhat Oralov, I found myself in a new role. I started is the development of Kazakhstan as the most import- working at the headquarters of the Candidate for the ant tourist destination in Central Asia. Kazakhstan is President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K.K.Tokayev. a country with a huge human, natural and historical For me, there was no other dream than to reveal all potential. Kazakhstan has done a lot for the develop- my resources in these very years. Since for me, too, the ment of the tourism industry over the years of inde- independence of my country is the dearest. It sounds pendence. However, time passes very quickly, and new in the Kazakh language “Tauelsizdik barinen kymbat”. technologies used today to advance our country are insufficient. Regarding the development of tourism, our OCA: What is the main feature that makes you country has made a breakthrough in the last ten years, and your art/work unique? and it’s admired in all corners of the planet. Of course, OS: My happiness, my activity is connected with unit-

OLZHAS SHINTAYEV

64 OCA MAGAZINE

ing people of the earth. One of the tools for this is the popularisation of cultural and humanitarian relations.

In my opinion, the whole world should study the philosophy of the Great Abai. After all, his works, on a par with the works of Confucius, Goethe or Kant, have one dominant thought.The main thing in this life is a person.

It seems that the world is huge, but while studying we understand that it’s so tiny, and thanks to man and new technologies, we can explore it without leaving home.

The tourism industry, in which I have been working for more than 15 years, brings the world closer and creates conditions for us to better understand ourselves and our purpose.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

OS: In general, the creative community of the world must take responsibility and act as a catalyst for changing the world to the world. This is a huge responsibility, but at the same time, this is an opportunity. The ECG makes a huge contribution to the development of a more open world with no boundaries. After all, it is through the creative industry and people with open minds that we can build a better world for ourselves and future generations. From my memories, a mem-

ber of our Guild was asked to show Kazakhstan to the whole world through his work within the World Specialized Exhibition Astana EXPO 2017. Unfortunately, he was not heard. However, today Kazakhstan is famous all over the world thanks to Dimash Kudaibergen, Imanbek or Alla Ilchun (Christian Dior’s muse).

Through their work they proved that very feature.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

OS: Sometimes, when comparing Kazakhstan with other countries, one wants to adopt their development model, especially in the tourism industry. Perhaps someone believes in this, but I am sure that our country has its own way of development. Our country, having a huge potential, can promote human values.

My goal is to make Kazakhstan a recognisable country thanks to its human creative capital.

OCA:What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

OS: Often they wish creative people do not stop there. I would like to wish all members of the Guild to look around sometimes. I wish them to find the best for themselves and their followers. Only the best thing can be priceless.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

65

LITERATURE en, and at the age 10 I already wrote for a children’s newspaper and published my first collection of science fiction stories. Since then, side by side with my various occupations, I haven’t stopped writing. My teacher and role model was my grandfather, the fabulist poet and painter,Yefim (Chaim) Roytman.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

DR: My accomplishments over the past two years are mainly in the film realm. During this period, I have written eight screenplays, including short and full-length movies, as well as pilot episodes of drama and comedy series.Though I’m an experienced writer, I’m still at the beginning of my journey as a screenwriter, so it was a milestone for me to win the ECG London Festival with my script Valkyrie.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

DR: Primarily many years of experience in the writing literature. Often my readers write to me saying that my works are very easy to read and the characters are memorable for years to come. I also love a fair amount of novelty and change, uncharacteristic of many. I have never stopped learning and studying and have changed many occupations in my life. This contributes to truthful and natural descriptions of characters and their feelings in my books and screenplays.

DARIEN SHAUL ROYTMAN WRITING IS MY MAJOR PASSION OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Darien Roytman: My full name is Darien Shaul Roytman, I am of Ukrainian origin, but I have been living in Israel since 1996. I’m a father of six children. Writer, screenwriter and sometimes poet.Writing is my major passion.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

DR: I have been writing prose from childhood. I started writing fairy tales for my peers at the age of sev-

66 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

DR: I have been a member of the guild from 2021 and since then I have participated in the Voices of Friends Festival in Burabay, the Open Eurasian Festival in Melbourne and the ECG Film Festival in London. I reached the finals in the last two festivals, and I won at my category at the London festival. Participation in ECG festivals propels me forward as it drives me to write, while striving for the highest level of creative writing. In addition, I am humbled by victories, and feel very proud of my work. Moreover, seeing victories as recognition of my work by others further fuels my motivation to create.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

DR: First and foremost, creativity is an essential part of life for me, akin to breathing and eating. I would write daily if it was possible. Hand in hand with that, I also write to bring joy to people and make them reflect.

When I write, I imagine my readers engaged with the characters, worrying about them, laughing with them, and crying when they suffer. I imagine my books helping my readers relax and feel a range of emotions. Additionally, for the curious readers, I often put hidden messages into the text that only very attentive and thoughtful readers will pick up on and understand.

DR: As a guild Guardian, I wish everyone creative success and an ocean of patience and perseverance. Don’t give up.Write, write, write, and write. Someday a grateful reader will write you and then it would have all been worth it. The grin will not leave your face.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

67

LITERATURE and propaganda, as an editor. I was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper and radio “Algorithm”. Currently, I am finishing a journalistic work, which I hope will be published soon and will find its reader.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

TP: My father gave me an interest in the sciences, and in particular in chemistry and physics. From mom’s love of reading books. Mom turned 94 on March 8 this year.

She is alive and despite her advanced age, she reads.

Parents are the first teachers. Interests, primary experience, knowledge pass from them and a purpose in life is born.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

TP: Recently, I received an Author’s certificate for disposable water filters using nano technology based on the sorbent “TOPUL – 1”. It consists of a multilayer material – Graphene, which has many interesting, amazing and useful properties for humanity. For example, multilayer graphene oxide disinfects water from harmful chemical impurities and bacteria. The water treated with it can be safely drunk from any source.

TOLKIN PULATOV LITERATURE SHOULD BECOME A BEACON ILLUMINATING THE WAY TO THE FUTURE! OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Tolkin Pulatov: This year I will be 70 years old. It is important to take a short pause to look at your past, summarize and make plans for the rest of your life! I was born in the city of Chirchik - 40 km away from the city of Tashkent. After graduating from school and receiving a passport from the age of 16, I began to work while studying at a technical school, and later at a University. In 1980, I took part in the construction of a bridge to Afghanistan. I worked in the State Television of Uzbekistan in the main editorial office of information

68 OCA MAGAZINE

I came up with disposable filters for water purification and I want to organize their mass production. I think the problem of providing clean drinking water will not leave anyone indifferent. Unfortunately, the ecology is not changing for the better - it is necessary not only to talk about it, but also to write about it - revealing the whole truth about the situation on the planet, offering solutions. Literature should become a beacon illuminating the way to the future!

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

TP: A true reflection of “reality” - without lies. It’s about journalism. I can’t stand it when readers are misled.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

TP: Chapters from the book I am finishing writing were published electronically with the assistance of the Eurasian creative Guild. At one of the meetings of the

Guild members held in the city of Tashkent, I was given the opportunity to speak to the audience. It was important for me to see the audience’s reaction and hear feedback. When you know that someone else is interested in your work, it inspires you to continue creating!

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

TP: It is very important to reveal your talent, to convey your perception of the world and attitude, to create by awakening kindness and love in people.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

TP: Of course, being a member of the Guild is not only an honorable right, but also opens up wide opportunities for the disclosure of the creative potential available in every person, whether you are an artist or a poet, or a writer, photographer or an aspiring director. And any creative person in the world can become an ECG member!

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

69

LITERATURE Along with that, I’ve been working as a PR and SMM specialist for a variety of businesses as a freelancer.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

YS: I have realised I loved writing before I realised I loved reading. Creating worlds in my head and developing stories about people (and not only people) have always made me feel alive and passionate.

But I believe I’ve never had a role model. Not even for a moment in my life. I have always been inspired by my mum’s work ethic and the talents of writers such as Jaqueline Wilson, Neil Gaiman, Vladimir Nabokov, Daniel Keyes, Banana Yoshimoto, and Osamu Dazai. I admire these people’s work, but I’ve never considered any of them to be my role model.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

YS: For the past year, I have been cementing my position as a PR specialist and author by founding my own company, ‘Pierogi Media’, alongside with my husband Ivan, and writing a script for an upcoming video game ‘Don Duality’.Writing a videogame has been a longtime dream of mine! Also, I’ve finally started treating my ‘side writing’ seriously — my first novel is progressing quite well. So, the past year has been busy.

YULIA SIBIRTSEVA CREATIVITY MAKES ME FEEL ALIVE AND PASSIONATE

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your artwork unique?

YS: I strive to make stories that are creative, heartful, and are still easy to be understood by readers of different levels and backgrounds. I have been told that I succeeded in this pursuit.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself that you have already taken part in and how and your creative activity/work does ECG influence your creativity and success Yulia Sibirtseva: My name is Yulia Sibirtseva, I’m 25 in your work? years old, and I am surprised to say that I am a profes- YS: In December’16 in London, I was awarded the 3rd sional writer. I’ve been copywriting for businesses since place at Open Eurasian Literature Festival in the catI was 16 years old. I’ve been writing my own stories and egory ‘Best Fiction’ for my short story ‘Wings in the imagining fantasy worlds since, most likely, I was 3 years Box’. Over 1400 writers from 44 countries had parold (with the help of my mum and grandma, of course). ticipated — never in my life, as a 19 year old girl, I would’ve imagined to be noticed on such a level. EuraNot only have I written my own stories, but I have writ- sian Creative Guild made me believe in my power as a ten numerous books for companies about the oil and writer. I will be forever grateful for that. gas industry, theatres, Eurasian cultures and many more.

70 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

YS: My greatest wish is doing what I love and good at, finding my readers, and making enough money so that I am not bound to any place in the world. Travelling and experiencing new cultures is what really excites me.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

YS: Be bold in your creative expression and believe in your art. Do not let imposter syndrome overtake your mind — you are here because of your talent. Create, love, and continue to challenge yourself as an artist.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

71

LITERATURE – it was already impossible to combine my beloved work as a programmer and my vocation of a writer. I chose literature and journalism. I am a multiple laureate of literary awards. In particular, my novel “Three Distiches”, depicting the collapse of the USSR and the formation of new realities in the post-Soviet space, twice became the winner of international literary contests, and the chronicle novel “Compressed into Diamonds” about modern Armenia became the silver award winner of the “Open Eurasia 2020”. In addition, I became the winner of “Open Eurasia 2022” in the genre of Dramaturgy. And also I am the winner of the ECG Eurasian Film Festival 2019 in the Book Trailer nomination.

YELENA ASLANYAN WRITER OF THREE CULTURES OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work.

Yelena Aslanyan: To introduce myself, I am Yelena Aslanyan, and I was born in 1961 into a family of an engineer father and a doctor mother. I live in Yerevan; I am married, with an adult son and a daughter. My first profession was related to programming; I worked in this profession for more than twenty years and delivered lectures in university. I wrote my first stories about twenty years ago, and they were immediately accepted for publishing in “thick” literature magazines. Recognition from readers was followed by the recognition of literary critics. As my prose passed the test of time, I had to make a choice

72 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

YA: My Teacher is John Fowles. It was his writings that gave me the desire to write. I read the Russian translation of “The Ebony Tower” by Fowles and found out that there is a book “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”. I was fascinated by the title and decided to read this great novel after that I wrote “The Russian Lieutenant’s Woman”. And I wrote such a novel, “Three Distiches”, which I mentioned above. My protagonist, Maryam, is the condensed image of a Soviet oriental girl, who has carried deep in her subconscious mind since childhood the desire to be a “Russian Lieutenant’s Woman” (she jokingly refers to herself in that way throughout the novel).

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

YA: My play “Daughter of a Kurd”, which I wrote based on my same-titled story, won 1st place in the “Open Eurasia 2022” Contest in the genre of Dramaturgy.This event has aroused interest among theater directors, and there is hope that the play will be staged on the theater stage.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

YA: I am an ethnic Armenian, but I was born and raised in Baku, received a Russian education, so my writings combine the civilizational aspects of three cultures Eastern, Russian and Armenian.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how

does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

YA: I have been taking part in Open Eurasia contests since 2017, participated in the Literary Festival 2019 in Brussels, in the Voices of Friends project, published in the Literary collections Thread (Nit-IV, Nit-V and Nit-VI), as well as in OCA magazine. ECG (London) was a turning point in my life, which led me from the expectation of success to success itself. There I found readers and authors whom I read with pleasure. For instance, my review of a novel by a talented author from Kazakhstan, Murat Uali, won the silver award at Open Eurasia 2022. Many of my colleagues have become my friends. It was ECG (London) that made it possible to fulfill my cherished dream and introduce the Englishspeaking readers to my novel “Daughter of a Kurd” in English in the Literary collection “Thread VI”.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

YA: The goal of any writer is to present their works to the readers, to acquaint as many people as possible with their writings. Each talented writer is unique; they

interpret reality in their own way and deliver their own answers to eternal questions. I want my readers to receive vital energy and faith in Love, Friendship and Goodness.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

YA: I would like to wish all creative people never to lose touch with reality even at the moments of success, and never to lose faith in themselves despite any failures. My advice for them is to participate in literary projects, communicate with colleagues, generate new ideas during such communication and exchange ideas with other people. Actually, our Guild gives us every opportunity for that: we communicate in ZOOM, at festivals, in groups on social media, we participate in interesting projects, and we move forward.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

73

ART technical and analytical, most serious specialty - 3D animation and magical visual effects.

And to this day, every morning, in adoration for my work, I rush to the MOD VFX studio, where I selflessly, in inspiration, embody my feelings and emotions in everything I do - in character animation, clothing generation, props animation, and rigging. And also, if necessary, I am happy to join in helping other departments, which has become my dear Studio.

In my spare time, I create pictures, make 2D animation, participate in creative festivals, competitions, and exhibitions, and illustrate and translate fiction and popular science publications in my free time. The missions of being a jury member of international competitions and administrative and volunteer duties in public organisations are essential for me.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

DA: Art and Animation attracted me to their abode, naturally and wonderfully, and without any options, probably because as soon as I learned to hold a pencil in my hand, I manifested my dreams in drawing.

DIANA ANPILOGOVA

Charlotte “Lotta” Reiniger, Yaoyao Ma Van As, Sofia Safryuk, the wonderfully unique compositions of the ONUKA group, and the charismatic charm of its leader Natalya Zhishchenko are the testimony, luminous satellites illuminating me with an example of their creativity - the best of the best in their field.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

ART IS THE ABILITY TO CONVEY FEELINGS DA: Three years of an unforgettable, all-consuming acOR THOUGHTS IN A GENERALLY ACCEPT- ademic journey make me proud of the knowledge and ED, ACCESSIBLE WAY skills acquired in my forever dear Alma-mater. I am sure that the high assessment of my educational theory and OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself practice will be confirmed by quality and scale, both and your creative activity / work current and new humanitarian and creative projects, Diana Anpilogova: I am Ukrainian. Since childhood, which I strive for with sincere gratitude. the Princess of the Principality of Kievan Rus, who always loved to draw and dreamed of being the creator So, back in 2021, taking part in the international comof a beautiful world, and as it turned out, in adulthood, petition “With Love for Nature” in Paris, I was happy to become an Animator. to gain the Grand Prize” of the European Academy of Science, Art, and Literature.

The dreamer ended up in the New York Film Academy, where she diligently and with honours mastered the So, quite recently, in collaboration with the famous fabulous in spirit and content and, simultaneously, the photographer Anna Lysun, a photo-art project of a

74 OCA MAGAZINE

large-scale charity event ArtPeace Ukraine in Los Angeles, was successfully developed, which manages to be turned into a systemic, permanent centre accumulating the energy of the invincible force of sound from all over the United States. So, authors’ works dedicated to the Ukrainian Hanseatic initiative await their connoisseur. At the exhibition - competition in the Polish city of Torun. And as they enthusiastically say in such cases in Ukraine - “to be continued”!

DA: With heartfelt gratitude, I share my joy and inspiration with all members of our international community - the Eurasian Creative Guild. I see all of us striving, creating, and being unconditionally free. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

DA: We all have a unique view of the World, and Virtue always has its rightful place.

Seeing vivid dreams, unmanifested reality, listening to the subconscious, and feeling the soul, I professionally create and share already deciphered, creatively interpreted symbols and hidden meanings, with the whole World, with its single consciousness. I like to pay attention to the brain, not only as a source of inspiration.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

DA: My daily motivation is emotional experiences, which can also be honourable, as well as my unforgettable participation in our signature art festival of the Guild, “Voices of Friends: Poetry and Art,” where in the exchange of experience, in the exchange of joy for the achievements of associates, you acquire not only the motivation to master new artistic skills and modern drawing techniques but also have the opportunity, the emotions you have experienced, poured onto the canvas, to be transformed into universal development, into Life Itself.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

DA: The artist’s fame expands his boundaries of relationship with Culture, which by definition is creative, stylish, original, and of course, I want to be and will be recognizable. After all, Art is the ability to convey feelings or thoughts in a generally accepted, accessible way.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

75

POETRY provides perfect quality with low costs. As of today we have published more than 400 unique books.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

EK: I have always admired the works of Russian classics such as Alexander Pushkin, especially that he was an innovator in his own way and created the Onegin Stanza as an example of a Russian sonnet. I believe that Pushkin’s work inspired me to create new compositions and I often use his forms to write works. I have a lot of works written in the Onegin stanza.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

EK: In 2023, I became a finalist of the second open SOLEROS named after Oleg Sorokin. And it became a significant event for me, because it took place in Elista, the city of the Republic where I was born. Moreover, in 2023, as part of our activities in the city of Yakutsk, we organised a scientific and practical conference on climate change and permafrost melting and I received the certificate of honour for the high level of organisation within the framework of Russia’s chairmanship in the Arctic Council 2021-2023. In addition, my book of mystical stories “Unknown near” was published in 500 copies.

EVGENY KOLGANOV GIVE BIRTH TO NEW IDEAS OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Evgeny Kolganov: My name is Evgeny Kolganov, I am 31 years old. Today I work in the sphere development of science and technology of Russian Federation, but I always really like creative activity such as writing of poems or something like this. My first poem was written in 2008. In 2015 I formed the community of modern authors under the name of “Rifmograd”. Today there are more than 22 000 like-minded people in it. Moreover, we opened a publishing house for authors from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other countries which

76 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

EK: I think that writing works in the Onegin stanza is my specialty because I mastered this format quite well, because the lines themselves add up to an algorithm allowing me to make the work unique and special. I tell poems in the Onegin stanza to our community authors, friends, colleagues, and I really believe that it inspires and pleases them.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

EK: Nowadays I try to participate in the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild in Russia. Annually I participated in the event, which took place in Moscow in 20222023. I tell everybody about the guild’s events in open sources. I conduct my own events, being a business coach, including for creative people, and many under

the auspices of the Keeper (Watchman of the Creative Guild), thereby asking questions, being interested and telling about it OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

EK: My main goal is to inspire other people. I’d like to be inspiring mentor. That’s why I help aspiring authors, inspire other authors to create their own poems, share my works with readers and I hope that I inspire them to new projects, give birth to new ideas.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

EK: I would wish them not to be afraid, to participate in the maximum number of poetic events, to use the maximum number of tools and ideas that are provided for them within the Guild or other communities. Never say the word “No”. You should try yourself without fear and sometimes surpass yesterday’s yourself. You should realise your ideas and, no matter what, continue to create and improve your creativity and share it with the world, inspire more and more new people to new deeds and feats. This is the cycle of samsara.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

77

PUBLIC FIGURE NA: I was following a certain criteria while choosing my path. It’s the matter to my liking where I can show the maximum of my talents and my strengths. It’s the matter where I can serve people, help them and reveal my uniqueness. And feel true happiness. It’s the business that will give me different sources of income and lots of opportunities for development as well. I have many teachers. I observe all the people around me and learn on the go everything that helps me in my business - appearance, behaviour, mindset, speed on making decisions, lifestyle.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

NA: My main achievement is my business! In March 2022 the Magic Women Club was opened. Since then I have held more than 150 meetings in more than 80 different places. Many women could change their life at this period due to this project.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

NA: My main feature is courage to make decisions. I’m a constant innovator who starts something new that hasn’t been done before, at least for our region. And empathy as well. I feel people, their needs and moods. I can unite and share energy with them. Everyone in my surroundings feel at ease and in harmony.

NADEZHDA ARTEMYEVA YOU CAN GET MUCH MORE WHEN YOU ARE TOGETHER OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Nadezhda Artemyeva: My name is Artemyeva Nadezhda Anantolievna. I’m the mother of two delightful children and a beloved wife. I founded the Magic Women Club where now I hold different events, launch training projects and lead women’s practices.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

78 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

NA: I am a permanent guest of the ECG (London). I often visit the residence and attend festivals where I meet amazing people. These are very interesting meetings. I realised how easy it can be to unite people erasing all boundaries in the world and our heads. Whatever country we live in, we have lots in common. And creativity is one of the linking threads. A gift to create is in every person but people need bravery to share it with the world, follow the heart voice and talent. And ECG unites truly unique people!

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

NA: My motivation is understanding that my knowledge and talents can help many others. And it happens

all the time. I want to see more happy people and families. My goal is to make the Magic Women Club an international project that will be the source of inspiration, joy, self-knowledge and better the lives for thousands of women. If a woman is happy, there is harmony and well-being in her family. And a happy strong family is a basis for a prosperous society.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

NA: I wish to mark their strengths and their desires clearly, find people who are supportive with all endeavours. I wish to do what they can to do best and with pleasure. To unite. What you can’t do or do not like to do may be something that others do easily and joyfully.

That means that you can get much more when you are together.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

79

JOURNALISM nation for exploring new lands, immersing in diverse cultures, grasping foreign tongues, and understanding peculiar customs gripped my heart. And it was through journalism that I finally materialized my dreams into tangible reality. The living testament to this pursuit lies within the embrace of the Eurasian Creative Guild.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?

RS: I did not deliberately choose this path, but rather, due to my independent thinking, it was the path that chose me.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 20222023?

RS: The journey from 2022 to 2023 has been incredibly intriguing. What had eluded my comprehension for many years finally became clear to me - the essence of life itself. In the embrace of ECG, I discovered new and enchanting friendships, adorned by fresh and beautiful faces.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

RS: The knowledge of Central Asia is a new skill that fills me with immense pride.

RAZA SYED I FIND GREAT INSPIRATION FROM INDIVIDUALS OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work Raza Syed: As a journalist, I must proudly declare that writing about of Central Asia has become my most cherished pastime. From the very inception, my thoughts and actions bore a streak of rebelliousness.

A daily ritual of maintaining a diary became my solace, as I penned down the occurrences that surrounded me. Perhaps, this simple habit or inclination steered me towards my current profession. A profound fasci-

80 OCA MAGAZINE

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

RS: Attending Guild events and witnessing the talent of the members involved has been truly admirable.

Observing them has also helped me uncover my own hidden talents. I find great inspiration from individuals like Marat Ahmedjanov, David Parry, and Gareth Stamp.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

RS: Writing, for me, is an avocation that grants voice to the sentiments that evade spoken expression. It is the art of transcribing the unspoken, a parchment upon which the whispers of the heart are unfurled. Words, once committed to the page, bear the power to transcend the confines of conversation, proliferating their message across the expanse of countless minds.

A beacon of hope, a tale of shared understanding. For within my dreams, I envision a world drenched in the

hues of serenity and joy, an aspiration that fuels my creative endeavours, inspiring me to etch my visions onto the parchment of reality.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

RS: The members of the Guild possess boundless qualities and talents. I have consistently had the opportunity to learn from them. If I were to envision the guild members as a bouquet of diverse flowers, literature, music, art, love, and the fragrance of peace would gracefully emanate from their union. My prayer is that these aspiring souls, commencing their journeys from this platform, shall forever remain on the path of progress.

WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM

81

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF NICK ROWAN PUBLISHER MARAT AKHMEDJANOV GUEST EDITOR GARETH STAMP EDITOR ASSISTANT ANNA NIKOLAEVA DESIGN ALEXANDRA REY OPEN CENTRAL ASIA MAGAZINE PEOPLE 4 #49 / 2023

Cover: Gulnara Makhmudova (see p.4) MAGAZINE PUBLISHED FOR EURASIAN CREATIVE GUILD

EDITORIAL TEAM ESBOL ABENOV TATIANA SHEVCHENKO ANNA LARI SHAMIL AKHMEDJANOV DISTRIBUTION TIMUR AKHMEDJANOV DANIEL AKHMED

ECG BOARD GARETH STAMP - CHAIRMAN MARAT AKHMEDJANOV - VICE CHAIRMAN ADVISORY BOARD ELENA ASLANYAN, ARMENIA ALDONA GRUPAS, UNITED KINGDOM ANATOLIY LOBOV, GEORGIA VICTORIA LEVIN, ISRAEL WARREN WILLS, AUSTRALIA ELENA BEZRUKOVA, KAZAKHSTAN AZIM AKMATOV, KYRGYZSTAN SURIYA YESENTAEVA, KAZAKHSTAN BAKHTYGUL MAKHAMBETOVA, KAZAKHSTAN ANASTASIA KUZMICHEVA, BELARUS ALINA MOSEIKINA, CYPRUS MARINA PODLESNAYA, MOLDOVA JONATHAN CAMPION, UK OKSANA ZHUKOVA, CRIMEA NATALIE BAYS, UK

Disclaimer : The information contained in this publication is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by OCA Magazine and while we endeavour to ensure the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability or suitability of the information, products, services, or related graphics represented for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

CONTACT INFORMATION EMAIL: PUBLISHER@OCAMAGAZINE.COM WWW.EURASIANCREATIVEGUILD.UK WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM EDITORIAL OFFICE SILK ROAD MEDIA SUITE 125 43 BEDFORD STREET COVENT GARDEN LONDON WC2E 9HA, UK CONTACT NUMBER (+44) 07411978 955 WHATSAPP & VIBER

All authors provide their own material and any opinions contained within are solely those of the authors and do not neccessarily represent the views or opinions of OCA Magazine.We publish these views as part of our provision of a forum for discussion and readers should be aware that the views may contrast each other in the pursuit of this aim. In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of material contained within this publication.

Special gratitude for cooperation and support to: Embassy of Azerbaijan to the UK Embassy of Belarus to the UK Embassy of Kazakhstan to the UK Embassy of Kyrgyzstan to the UK Embassy of Russian Federation to the UK Embassy of Tajikistan to the UK Embassy of Turkmenistan to the UK Embassy of Uzbekistan to the UK CATBIG, TEAS