Lesya Guseva (1987-present) is a Perm artist, famous for her funny and witty drawings about Tiny Shea the squirrel, retired superheroes and revived characters of famous paintings by Russian artists. Her works are made in a fairly standard cartoon style, but are characterized by good detail and quality drawing, and even hard to believe that Guseva has no professional education. However, in the network her works are very popular, the squirrel Tiny Shea has become a real brand - her image is printed on calendars, postcards and T-shirts and in general on everything wherever possible. Guseva quickly patented her image, organized her own store and probably gets a good income.
You need to know how to make borscht. It's from an episode of Squirrel Baby Shea.
And there was no luck, but misfortune helped. Guseva, even before she became famous, liked to communicate with friends on one of the Perm forums, where she was called "Squirrel". One day she felt sad and drew a picture of a sad squirrel, showing her mood without too many words. Everyone liked the drawing, collected a lot of likes and wanted to draw something else in the same spirit. Guseva responded with a series of funny illustrations that were a huge success. The number of her followers on all social networks went into the thousands and everyone started talking about the new talented network artist.
Cherished Wish. From the series Squirrel Tiny Shea.
Perhaps the only thing Guseva really regrets now is the lack of a good art education. According to the artist's confession, because of this she often stepped on rakes, made mistakes that any artist, even if he had just graduated from school, would simply not have made. "Experience is the son of difficult mistakes" - this is just about Guseva's creative path, and she sincerely advises everyone to get a profile education, if you seriously plan to work in the field of graphics and illustration.
Best mate. From the Little Shea squirrel series.
The artist didn't want to dwell only on one squirrel Shea, she needed to move on. So the idea of illustrations showing superheroes in retirement was born - the project "Retirement". And what, time has power over everyone, so the aged Batman quietly sleeps in his bed, hanging his superhero costume on the rack and obviously is not going to go to the streets of Gotham, to put fear on criminals and Joker, with whom he seems to have become friends for so many years of acquaintance.
Batman in Retirement. From the "Retirement" series.
The Hulk has aged, too. He has to spend time in queues to the doctor, as some of our pensioners, but he is not distinguished by patience, he is probably still able to give vent to anger, and then it will not be good for everyone.
Hulk at the health centre. From the "Pensioner" series
Catwoman in Katya Guseva's illustrations seems to be in her ninth decade, but she still wears a tight suit, even though it looks absolutely ridiculous. At least she has more free time to devote to her favourite kitties - there are so many pictures of them on the wall.
Catwoman. From the "Retirement" series.
But the aged Deadpool (more like Deadpool:) is not discouraged and can't do without his next pranks, albeit completely harmless.
Deadpool. From the "Retirement" series.
But the one you can really envy is Tony Stark. He's surrounded himself with pretty girls and is clearly enjoying life and his multi-million dollar fortune.
Tony Stark in Retirement.
A lot has been written and talked about "Retirement", it became world famous, but Guseva did not plan to stop there and wrote a new series of paintings, clearly inspired by the famous film "Night at the Museum". She imagined what would happen if the heroes of famous Russian paintings suddenly come to life and descend from their canvases. It turned out to be interesting and unexpected - for example, Ilya Muromets decided to take a bath and at the same time took with him a sailing ship from Aivazovsky's painting "The Gulf of Naples" in the scale in which it is painted on the picture.
Ilya Muromets. Night at the Museum" series
Her works add optimism and give hope for a happy ending.
For example, the bride in Pukirev's painting has taken a pitchfork from the painting "American Gothic" hanging next to it and is clearly preparing to "make a goat" of the elderly groom and all the do-gooders who tell her to marry him.
The War Bride. "Night at the Museum" series
And Venus in Botticelli's famous painting is tired of standing, bashfully covering herself with her hand on the seashell and she, like any modern girl, picks up suitable outfits, obviously intending to go to some night party.
Venus. Night at the Museum series
All in all, a very unusual reading of the classics, but surely having the right to exist - or not? Let us know in the comments what you think of Guseva's works and whether they can be considered art at all?
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author of the article Mikhail Fedorin
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