Mustaev Vasily Gennadyevich

I was born on May 3, 1963 in the third maternity hospital of Izhevsk. I grew up and still live in my native village of Yakshur in the Zavyalovsky district of Udmurtia. It is near Izhevsk on the Votkinskiy road. My father was a general mechanizer, worked as a tractor driver for a long time. Last years he was the head of machine and tractor workshops. My mom was a paramedic. She worked as a head of the health center at the Izhevsk automobile plant. There were no artists in the family. And from early childhood I decided to eliminate this gap, saying to myself - as soon as I grow up, I will become an artist. As long as I can remember, I have always drawn. Our white Russian stove in the village house was covered with scribbles. Thankfully, there was no shortage of colored pencils. I didn't go to kindergarten, I stayed at home with my grandmother. The sweet Spirit of Freedom I knew from a young age. At school I was famous for my uncontrollability, good drawing and perfect misunderstanding of mathematics. We didn't have a professional drawing teacher, we had linguists, historians and even cleaners-technicians who proudly called themselves technical employees. There was a pioneer newspaper published in Udmurtia called "DAS LU!" - "BE READY!" and I used to send there my self-executed drawings, drawing mostly with watercolor paints. I must say that even before school Mama sent my drawings to children's magazines "MURZILKA" and "Veselyaye Kartinki". I was even sent two diplomas from there (unfortunately, they have not survived). In the newspaper my pictures were very popular. Even famous Udmurt artists praised them. I was supervised by the famous children's poet German Alekseevich Khodyrev. After graduation he offered me to enter the art and graphic arts faculty of UdSU, but I did not dare. There it was necessary to pass math, with which I was not a friend.

When I learned that there was a very interesting art school in the city of Kungur, I went there. At the entrance exams passed only drawing, painting and composition. The school was arts and crafts profile. Of the seven professions I randomly chose the specialty of ceramist. I studied well, but without much enthusiasm, until I met a young Perm artist Victor Khan (later Matsumaro Khan). Already then in 1981 he was a famous ceramic artist, exhibited all over the world. He used to teach at our school, being at that time an artist at the Kungur Artistic Products Factory. He turned everything in me: he told me about the true situation with art in the USSR, about world achievements in different kinds of plastic arts, gave me practical advice and always told me to listen to my inner voice...

I graduated with honors. Two months later I got married and the next day I was drafted into the army. I served in Moscow, in the Central Office of the Ministry of Defense. I fulfilled the tasks set by the command, which consisted in the artistic design of secret documents, such service has forged me into a graphic artist. While serving, I had a daughter Nastya. And having returned from the army, in two weeks I already got a job. And not just anywhere, but in the very pioneer newspaper, where I published my pictures. While working at the newspaper as a retoucher, I met and became friends with a wonderful artist Mensadyk Garipov. It was he who suggested that I continue my work in a children's magazine. Half a year later I was invited to the position of art editor of the newly created magazine "Kizili" ("Zvezdochka"), where I am still working, already 35th year (the magazine was born in July 1986). I became friends with the UDMURTIA book publishing house. I have designed and illustrated about a hundred different books and editions. in 1996 and 97 I received three diplomas of the All-Russian contest "The Art of the Book". In the present troubled time I continue to illustrate the magazine, books and even designed the republican festival of dumplings.