“Not Afraid to Put Someone in a Tree”

Each of Alex Gerasev’s prints for sale in draws the viewer into a mini-world, complete unto itself.

“I tell a story, but the story has its own life,” Gerasev explains. “After I’m done you can find many stories to it.”

And although he says he “cannot compete with nature” which was “made beautiful by God” he is also drawn to the outdoors.

Take, for example, High Grass. Two figures — a smaller boy in front, a mysterious hatted man behind — approach between rows of reeds. The sun hangs overhead; there are hills to the side. Who are the people? What is their relationship? Where are they going? The print immediately engages the viewer with questions, creating a back-and-forth process between viewer and picture, a connection that makes Gerasev’s work so much fun, so fascinating.

The image for High Grass came from walks the artist took through the Revere salt marshes with his 7-year-old son. It is “very beautiful grass.  … I’m 6 feet and this is 9 feet.”

Gerasev carves his prints from linoleum.

Linoleum printing is extraordinarily labor intensive. Gerasev must “carve the white stuff out” in order to leave the material that the ink will stick to, the material that creates the image we see on the paper. Gerasev says that he often carves a print, and then waits a while to actually print it out, because that is another laborious step.

Take for example, the print “Jerusalem,” which is done in 3 colors. To make that print, Gerasev carved 3 identical blocks. He then colored each in turn with 3 different colors, and printed 3 times on one paper, taking care to line them up exactly in order to create the image.

Born and educated in Russia, Gerasev emigrated here in 1998 at the age of 23. His training reflects the Russian system of art education. There, students specialize and train early, so at the age of 12 his parents sent him to art school. By the time he was ready for college and enrolled in The Academy of Fine Arts, Gerasev knew he wanted to study graphic design and printmaking. At the Academy, he further specialized in the technique he now practices—printmaking from linoleum blocks.

This technique, 200 years old, was originally done on wood blocks. But, Gerasev says, the type of wood required “is too expensive.” The technique requires so many “levels of detail” and wood that can be cut across the grain is very expensive — plywood, for example, won’t do. So, since the beginning of the last century, artists made the switch to linoleum.

Gerasev says that coming to the US has opened up his approach to his art. His technical training was top flight, but he says the Russian emphasis on training first, and experimentation second can be limiting, that the years spent learning technique are often the same years an artist develops in style as well, so that a person can be left technically brilliant but unable to experiment.

Here in the US, he says, artists are encouraged to experiment from the beginning, although sometimes at the sake of skill.

Take a look at Gerasev’s whimsical Tree of Life.  

 “I love the trees,” he says, and “I don’t like leaves on them” because then he cannot see their shape. When they are bare, their “branches spread out to reach from the ground and the result is magical.”

Sitting on the branches along with the birds in Tree of Life are people. That type of innovation came when he got to America.

In Russia, people in trees would have greatly upset his classical teachers.

Here, he laughs, he is “not afraid to put someone in a tree.”

Gerasev’s prints sell for $150 at Gaga.

For more information about the artist and to view his work, please visit http://www.alexgerasev.com/

The Gaga Gallery is featuring 10 other artists in its Holiday Exhibit, including local artists I’ve previously interviewed. Glass artist has some lovely ornaments for sale, and , whose pastel flowers are so popular, has a beautiful set of bird pictures.

The exhibit runs through December.

Gaga Gallery, located on 459 Humphrey Street, is open 12-7, Wednesday through Sunday.