The crossroads of two extremes: Designer and artist Liana Yaroslavsky

I recently discovered an intriguing designer and artist named Liana Yaroslavsky in the April 2010 issue of Vogue Living Australia. Liana’s life story is as compelling, fascinating, and extreme as the amazing tables—literally pieces of art—that she creates.

Liana was born in Leningrad and lived a young life filled with art, music, and end evenings at the Kirov Ballet. Her grandfather played the piano, her grandmother painted waterclours, and her father was an art book editor.

When Liana turned 9, she and her mother emigrated to Israel, leaving her father and grandmother behind in Russia. Ten years later, Liana did military service, going for 4:00AM runs and learning how to use weapons. And at the same time, she was taking dance and art classes and becoming a model. By the age of 20, she had been married and divorced.

She left Israel to go to New York with a film director. She learned sculpting, painting, and graphic design at Parsons School of Design and joined the largest graphic arts studio in New York City after graduating. Then she promptly quit to marry a Frenchman and move to Paris. She became the artistic director at a graphic design agency there, and eventually created her own studio.

And then as she wondered if someone would discover her, she discovered herself.

Liana had a Murano chandelier she had fallen in love with, but she didn’t know what to do with it. One day, she decided to change her coffee table. She took the chandelier, turned it upside down, spread out the branches like flowers on a bed of 19th century watercolours, and put it all into a plexiglass cube. It was Liana’s first creation, and the start of the realization of her dream to create art.

Like Liana’s life, her art is the crossroads of two extremes. Paradoxical and sophisticated… Versailles and Rock & Roll… history and post-modernity… purist and baroque… minimalism and exuberance… ordered and haphazard… parquet with crystal… masculine and feminine…

These are a few of Liana’s tables, starting with her first creation…

 

 

Inspired by the Tsar’s royal ball in Anna Karenina, Le Bal includes piano keys, wings made from real feathers, 19th century piano compositions, and two crystal chandeliers.

   

The juxtaposition of sparkly crystal and raw parquet is a perfect example of “the crossroads of two extremes”.

 

This table is my favourite — one hundred balls of Murano blown glass floating above a Versailles parquet floor…

  

I highly encourage you to visit Liana’s web site to read all about her fascinating life and to explore all of her creations, including interiors…

…and her studio.

Do Liana’s life and experiences inspire you to follow your dreams?? Leave a comment and let me know what you’re dreaming of creating.

I can help you make your home be what you want it to be. Contact me at kelly@jaxdecor.ca or call me at 613.291.2491

All information and images from http://www.lianayar.com/