Laura Gorodetskaya biography

The walls are published by photographs and painted wooden boards, on the shelves - many books and figures of people and animals. There is even a false it-a frame with an intricate pattern sheet of clay. And the center of attraction is the rack where clay beauties in kokoshniki and flirty hats were lined up, gentlemen officers in uniforms, merchant families, as well as bears, goats, cats, fairy -tale birds, flowering trees, churches ...

I was lucky enough to visit the famous Laura Gorodetskaya, and I, with the photo correspondent, was lucky. To which the Samara clay toy became flush with such world -famous Russian “brands” as Kargopol, Dymkovskaya, Filimonovskaya, Abashevskaya. We have already told about the life and difficult fate of this amazingly bright and, despite the external fragility, we have already told a strong woman.

The repressed father, a nationality Pole, broken by the interrogation of mom. A difficult, but still happy military childhood. Dreams of the scene, the benefit of talents, the young Laura always had many: from the age of seven she sang, danced, read poetry. Then the gift of the artist was also discovered. It was he who determined her further fate. She worked as a retoucher-restorer on television, entered the paid Moscow Institute of Arts for the specialty "Clara Artist".

Improving the Unionmultfilm studio, talked with the famous author of the crocodile Genes and Cheburashki - Puppeteer Oleg Musainov. It was there that Laura Konstantinovna collided for the first time with a clay toy, one might say, she fell ill with her. As it turned out - for life. She shoveled a mountain of literature about this folk fishing, collected the material literally bit by bit.

Fortunately, an old muffle furnace in which clay could be burned was at hand. The very first works of the craftswomen were very successful. She found her special, unique author's style. Now they know about him all over the world - this is the Samara clay toy of Laura Gorodetskaya. And if you carry a souvenir in memory of Samara to another city or even abroad, it seems that you can’t find a better gift.

Because in these works the spirit of our city lives, forever sealed in clay. Laura Konstantinovna always generously shared her knowledge and skills with students - she led a circle in the palace of the pioneers of the Zheleznodorozhny district of Samara in the Schors Park. Children from all over the district came to the workshop, from difficult families and remote schools, of various nationalities and with their own destinies.

The talented teacher Gorodetskaya told her students about the history and culture of Samara, which was then rethought and reflected in the toy. Among them were very talented guys. I had such a smart girl!

And another student, Genya Friedman, so the goats turned out very well. She blinded the goat and the seven goats at the exhibition, and then asks, they say, give me more clay, I will blind them dad, otherwise it is not good if there are seven children without a father ... In general, I have a lot of work of my students, but, unfortunately, they are completely to put them, so they lie on the mezzanines of dead burden.

Eh, we would have a workshop, so that there is where to expose everything, to show people ... ”, complains Laura Konstantinovna. But the workshop, and even more so the Museum of the Samara toy. Although the authorities promised Gorodetskaya support at one time, she still has to create her own masterpieces in a tight, unsuitable apartment. But the clay toys of Laura Konstantinovna are the preservation of folk traditions, the creative potential, the identity of the Samara region, and the potential attention of tourists, and the opportunity to educate many more talented children.

Our conversation smoothly flows directly to her work. She thinks for a moment. I pass every work through my heart. Each is a reflection of some moments in my fate, dear people, the story and appearance of my beloved Samara and its heroes. Here is a flowering tree - a memory of my grandmother’s cherry garden, where I spent my childhood. Here is the lady with the guys - I portrayed my youngest daughter with her grandson.

I have many windows of different clay - in memory of the windows in my favorite Samara wooden houses - here they are, with a cat, with geranium on the windowsill, with a teapot. I sculpted the figures of Peter Alabin with the family, the former mayor of Samara Oleg Sysuev - what is interesting to me personally. I have many goats of different ones - this is the well -known symbol of Samara, a goat of heaven ...

”With caution, I take warm clay figures in my hands. Here is a cat with two kittens hanging on his neck. But this beautiful, fair -haired beauty in a red sundress is very reminiscent of the craftswoman itself - with the same golden oblique and clear bright eyes. On all figures - inscriptions. Short rhymes, sayings - with warm, kind, love for the toy itself, and to the one who took it in their hands.

And on the small desktop of the craftswoman, among the neat row of jars with paints, glasses and brushes, a notebook with the laconic inscription "poems" lies. In it - the whole life of the author, her views, feelings, emotions.Gorodetskaya shows an old muffle stove for firing clay, which managed to get it - it was written off at school. It is stored under the sink in the bathroom - nowhere else.

When there is a firing, absolutely everything has to be taken out of the bathroom. There is no workshop, so you have to work in such conditions, ”Laura Konstantinovna sighs. The firing process is quite long, the product must be heated gradually so that it does not burst. But the frozen bucket, where pieces of clay wrapped in wet rags lie. This is almost ready clay. Before starting to sculpt, the clay must be sift, sorted from garbage and soaked in water - the process takes up to three months.

Therefore, masters treat her as jewelry. From the bucket, the master takes out a piece of clay, moistens his hands with a damp cloth, and a miracle begins to occur on a special wooden block-substrate right before our eyes. The fingers of the craftswomen are crumbling, rolling, pulling, like living material, and it is already clear that a bird is born in her hands. Here is the head, a beak appears on it, the tail straightens a lush fan ...

And Laura Konstantinovna herself is in some magical way: her eyes are warming even more, her face is getting younger, the voice becomes a singing bird: “This is a fabulous bird of happiness. Did you know that the whole Russian land came from a tiny piece of clay, behind which such a small bird dived at the very bottom of the sea-ocean, pinched it with its beak and carried it to the surface.

And it was from this piece that the whole Russian land was born, on which the cities and villages grew later ... ”As the mel of the ancient Guslyar, this story lulled and carried away to some fabulous, they were uneasy, they wanted to believe and listen to infinity. And to endlessly observe the caressing, gentle, strokeing movements of skilled hands that create a fairy tale ... Irina Blomerius, photo of Yuri Sagittarius, Samara Izvestia The most readable.