My name is Daniil Al'tmark. I was born in Tula City,
Russia, about 200 kilometers from Moscow.
I was always fascinated with art, beginning as a very
young child. When I was about three or four years old
I would go to the children's art studio in Tula City.
Every day, I'd be painting, drawing, learning about
colors and shapes and making small pictures. Once
during my childhood, I traveled with my parents to
Moscow and visited one of the Moscow art museums. It was my first encounter with Russian folk art. I saw
beautifully carved boxes. They were extraordinary. I
was so impressed by this when I returned home I asked
my father if he would give me a little knife. He did
and also gave me some small chisels and one small
linden board. That became my first carving. It was
very bad, in fact it was awful! But I did another
one, and another one, and after a year, the carved
works--a box, a cutting board--my father said,
"weren't bad at all."
By the time I was working consistently on these
carvings, I became acquainted with an old expert
craftsman at a local fair. He taught me some secrets
of the trade and how to carve a figure--men, women and
animals. I practiced what he showed me for two years and by that time I was old enough to enter art school.
So I entered Tula Art School.
I continued studying woodcarving, slowly mastering
different tools and learning about different kinds of
woods. I also began to make clay toys and some simple
engravings. But I was a wood carver at heart. I
carved trees (that were already cut and dried) and
carved chopping boards, mugs for drinking, bread boxes
and boxes for valuables.
One of the most famous of all Russian art objects is
the Easter Egg. On another visit to Moscow, I was
able to see some of the most beautifully produced eggs
in all of Russia. Wood sculpted with expert hands!
This impressed me again, and I attempted to carve one
for my art school diploma. Under the direction of one
of my teachers I learned how to carve the intricate
patterns and understand the precise cutting needed to
produce a hand-carved Easter Egg that, when looked at,
simply astonishes.
When I graduated Tula Art School, I was the local
specialist in Russian National Folk Crafts. It is a
passion and a pleasure, something I can make with my
own hands that pleases the eyes of others. Sometimes
when people ask me now how I make these works I tell
them, "It seems that the hand draws and makes the work
itself."
