WINGERT: How did you react to your first visit to an orphanage? YELISEYEVA: I couldn’t help crying. I didn’t know anything about orphans or orphanages, but I knew the situation was not good. The feeling there was hard–it was not very friendly, not a healthy atmosphere. So many people there just use the kids. I thought it was so important for the kids to have a place out of the orphanage.
After you met your group of 12, what was your plan? At the beginning I just wanted to play with them and make their lives a little happier. But after some time I noticed they were so creative. I was teaching them, and those children were responding in a big way. During the week they would draw on paper at the orphanage and bring me their little drawings.
Why were you so determined to create a studio for them outside the orphanage? The orphanage administration was not happy with me bringing in paints–they don’t let [the children] paint because they don’t want their desks to get dirty.
Many of the children you work with were labeled debili–imbeciles–by testers at early ages. How does that affect the children? If they say that about you, you can’t get an education at a normal school or college. You can’t get a driver’s license, and for the older kids, nobody wants to hire them–people look at their papers and say, “You’re crazy.” And once you have that label, it’s extremely hard to get it changed.
Do you think there’s something wrong with these kids? The government has a testing system, but I don’t think it can tell the difference between the kids who just don’t know things, because no one ever told them anything, and those who are crazy… A couple of them have problems–and still have problems. But most of them are absolutely normal kids.
Was it a surprise that the murals were so joyful? Even with the very first mural, the colors are very bright, and they look joyful. I was surprised how they loved to imagine life in the murals and think of funny scenes–like someone falling in the snow so all you could see were their feet. They told many little stories in the murals. When they paint individually, they sometimes paint scary things or with black thinking. But when they are working together, they think of good things. On one mural they were all dreaming of toys, and they created a country of toys–they painted all the toys they could imagine.
What inspires the children? They don’t get to travel in the city–trips away from the orphanage are rare. They don’t have books–most orphanages have no library at all. Most of these children have only had a few books in their hands in their whole life. It’s amazing that they are so creative. But I think they are so grateful for any attention that they get, and they respond. If I had been a singer or a musician or a dancer, I think we would have seen the same thing. I believe they are like a field, just waiting for seeds.
They became more than students to you? I started to take them home to my family. I would hold a lottery, and one or two of them would come every weekend… Now two of the older ones live with me, and another lives at the studio… I wanted to create a private orphanage for them, but there was no way to do that.
Has this become your life? Yes. I’m so happy to have these kids. I love all of them, but those first ones are like a first love, like family. I hope they will always stay with me, and help me with the smaller kids. I hope to grow from “Maria’s Children” to “Maria’s Grandchildren” someday… I wish I had time to paint, myself, but through what I’m doing, I get what I need.
