Every week in Time magazine they include a little piece near the end where they get some celebrity’s list of things they’re in to right now. This last week it was Sir Ian McKellen and the first item on his list was sand painting and he mentions Simonova’s name. Until that moment I had no idea what sand painting was. Maybe you’ve heard of it already. Apparently, this kind of sand painting is when sand is spread on an opaque surface that is lit from underneath and the artist creates images in the sand with her fingertips. Well, I had to satiate my curiosity and I instantly went to YouTube to see for myself.
Kseniya Simonova was 2009′s Ukraine’s Got Talent winner. It only took one video to make me an instant fan. I have embedded the video that I first saw. Apparently, it depicts life during the Great Patriotic War of the USSR against the Third Reich during World War II. I think there was a lot of cultural significance that was lost on me in the depiction, but I was incredibly moved nonetheless. It had the audience of Ukraine’s Got Talent in tears. I highly recommend this. Beautiful.
I also discovered that this kind of sand painting has been around for years and Simonova is certainly not the first to turn heads with this medium. Another artist whose work appears on YouTube is Ferenc Cako. Check it out.
