“WE WERE VERY POOR BUT VERY HAPPY”

“WE WERE VERY POOR BUT VERY HAPPY”

Dr. Ksenia Kisselincheva

These are the words of painter Krassi Gurinov, when asked about his students’ days at the Academia delle Belle Arte in Rome, way back in the mid-sixties. Living on the brink of poverty, he and his mates had an exhilarating feeling of freedom - searching for an artistic identity during the daytime, while at night embarking on wild pranks in the eternal city. Whenever they ran out of money, they would go to Fontana di Trevi where visitors throw coins to return to Rome, which is a very old belief.

So, Krassi and his international gang of art students would not contemplate the sculptural configuration or the reflections of lights on the emerald green water. They would go on a “treasure” hunt, plunging in the water, collecting coins from the bottom. The Italian policemen, “the carabinieri”, knew they were no bandits and left them alone. They would say: “Here come the artists for their night swim!” Krassi and his “accomplices” would collect as much as would pay for a few bottles of Chianti and a pasta. Then they would stroll around, absorbing the sights and sounds of the immovable feast of night life. Finally around 5a.m., they would soak in the sunrise in the cooling sprays of some gorgeous fountain. Krassi knew them all so intimately- he had studied each curve of the tangle of figures, the overplay of light and shadow - he had recreated them so many times on canvas during the last four years. “We were very poor but very happy!”

So, in 1967, when he was told by the Bulgarian embassy people to go back and do his military service, he had no choice but to look for political asylum. It was a hard choice - he was painfully aware it meant he would be deprived of seeing his family and friends for good. But he had to finish his studies first! Painting had become a way of life for him and he had to forge out his distinctly individual style, inspired by the atmosphere of this artistically glamorous city. He would never forget his conversations with some of his professors, how they opened his eyes for the secrets of great art. Montanarini, the famous cubist artist was among them - he watched with curiosity while Krassi was painting but never made a comment or a remark. Later, when they sipped an espresso outside the university, the 17-year old pupil dared to ask the maestro for his opinion. Montanarini smiled and said: “There is something distinctively individual about you. Believe me or not, I myself, get a creative impulse when I look at your works.” Krassi was speechless - the professor was a true legend in the world of art!

Actually, he studied in the Academia for one year less than other students because after the entrance exam, he was admitted straight into the second year. They wrote in the newspapers about the young East European who had taken the sacred citadel of art by storm. “Those were precious, memorable moments in Rome, full of so many romantic thrills.”

He graduated and decided to try his luck in the pursuit of the American dream. He had heard so many stories about the Promised Land of unlimited opportunities - how you could become rich and successful there overnight. So, one day in January 1967, he found himself at the port of New York. He was with a Bulgarian mate of his. They had left sunny Rome for snowbound New York. They were in their suits and had no overcoats. But they were full of determination and hope!

At first, they had to do the washing up in a restaurant just to pay for their food. Then they got an offer to haul up some luggage to Chicago and ended up with a $100 each.  A Bulgarian guy overheard them speaking Bulgarian and offered them a job in his factory. Krassi started learning English while the machine processed the plastic details. He even had time to do some painting. Why did he choose to finally settle in Phoenix? He saw a film with shots from Arizona and was awestruck by the otherworldly surreal landscape. Films about Mars were often shot there. He decided that was the place to be for an artist like him. And he stayed there for the next 25 years!

“You can’t imagine the desert in springtime. It turns into a flower garden – wild daisies and blooming cacti in all shades of color – orange, yellow, purple. The sky is huge, the stars as big as apples. The scenery is of contrasts – only a two hour drive from the desert, you are at 2000 m high. Close to the Grand Canyon, surrounded by “panderosa” pines and lots of snow”.

At one time, Krassi had a villa there for a year or two he lived far from the crowd, in close communion with nature. “I was very happy and calm there, all I did was just paint. I watched closely the over-play of light and shade, as the sun moved across the sky. Something I have been doing all my life”.

Krassi does not like to be pinpointed to any school or style of painting. The spiral and the sphere are shapes which recur, there is also a sweeping sense of motion, a kind of vortex. He prefers to use oil, metal dust, sprays and some other modern techniques. The texture of his paintings stands out in relief. He just follows his emotions and, while doing this, he experiences a visual delight. Whatever the image on the canvas, you are always struck by a spiraling impetus. “Everything is spurred on by the flutter of emotion, I have the feeling that my hand is moved by “someone” up there, whether you call him the Creator or some other supernatural force. I am simply the mediator of his revelations.”

Krassi is passionately involved in astrology and believes that world territories are under the influence by zodiac signs. In his “Astrological Map of the World” he tried to grasp color equivalents of various signs. He also sees “the map” as a large-scale mural - he will be having an exhibition in Philadelphia next year.

What made him come back to Bulgaria? “I came back in 1994 because this is my native country though the Bulgarian state has always been a step-mother to me.” Spiritually he feels more comfortable here.  He does not wish to be caught in “the rat race” anymore though he proved himself to be successful at it. Again he lives close to nature in Dragalevtzi, at the foot of the Vitosha mountain. Again, he watches closely the overlapping of light and shade as the sun moves across the sky. And he paints.

Since his return he has had three exhibitions. The second one, “Arisona Dream” opened in 1995 and displayed over 80 works, all done in the US. The titles speak for themselves – “Grand Canyon”, “Life in the Desert”, “Vision in the Sky”. Everything was sold out. The most recent exhibition opened in the cultural house in Dragalevtzi in 2002 and displayed 54 works. It was done with a charitable purpose and the money was given for the repair of the old school where Krassi’s father was an art teacher.

Actually, Krassi is a third generation artist. His mother, Iova Raevska, was among the best Bulgarian ceramic artists, with many international prizes. He grew up, imbibing the atmosphere of eminent men of art who dropped by at his mother’s studio. They spoke so passionately about truth, about the depth of things in art and thus spontaneously taught him the first lessons of artistic integrity. For Krassi, artistic integrity is of crucial importance. You better earn your living in some other way but never betray your talent, your vision. He decries those painters who work for the sex shops or Walt Disney. 

Some of Krassi’s clients in America respect him exactly for this - for not betraying his distinctively individual artistic vision in an increasingly commercialized world. We were sitting on a wooden bench in the garden, looking at the snow capped tops, at the green velvet of the pine forests. Krassi was telling me how he was involved as a schoolboy in planting pines up the mountain. He had planted a few in his own yard. By now they were tall, aspiring to the sky. They would be there for generations to come, beautiful and evergreen, untouched by time, as all true art is.

On the Spot Monthly, 2004