Season 2 – Episode 24. Released on August 11, 2015.
Art, Russia and Waking Up in America (with Olga Alexeeva)
INTRO
Today I’m in the Marathon village, in downtown Nashville with an artist and owner of fine art “O’ Gallery Olga Aleexeva. Olga was a professional stage actress when she left Soviet Union with her son and came to America to start a new chapter of her life. We talk about how a painting class helped her to wake up to freedom, artistic expression, creativity and passion to inspire others to do the same.
BUMPER
I am Tajci.
At 19 I was a superstar and I was lost inside. I left it all behind, switched continents and started all over. Years later I found myself lost again. This time in the American dream.
This is a story about awakening. About living the life you were created for. About going inward and discovering the joyous and purposeful person you and I are both meant to be.
TAJCI
Olga, this is so wonderful to be here. You’ve created such an amazing space, this art gallery.
OLGA
Thank you.
TAJCI
And these are mostly, they are all you works?
OLGA
Yes, it is. I do have a couple of photographers, but initially this location was kind of created for my showcase, and as much as I can show, I show.
TAJCI
You know what it… I can almost… I can’t see your life in it, but I can sense it. I can feel the.. what do I feel? Joy… and what’s so cool is that you are my first Russian on this show.
OLGA
All right!
TAJCI
And… this show is “Waking Up in America’ and I am an immigrant, and I find America, American spirit of being brave and free…
OLGA
People who are born in this country, they take it for granted.
They don’t know what it is to kind of just strive for something, achieve something and keep something. Because you can strive and achieve, but then somebody is gonna come and take it away from you, or something. So, there is no security. And this country, that I’ve already been in for 24 years, is different.
TAJCI
Paint the picture for us. Your childhood in Russia. How you started.
OLGA
Well, my childhood is too far away from when I started, so let’s just kind of… I just grew up in Russia and I was a Pioneer, a Pioneer organization, it’s like a…
TAJCI
Junior communist party.
OLGA
Right, exactly! So I had to be. I used to be a professional actress on the stage. So not much in the movies, so that’s why this is… all these cameras it’s kind of a little bit…but I get used to it. I just try to kind of block my mind from that and remember… what I come from. So I spent about 13 years on the stage and in my paintings, you pretty much can see my staging, my story telling that’s what I like to do, a storytelling.
TAJCI
When you say professional actress, that means you went to the Academy.
OLGA
I went to two colleges, I’ve… because in Russia, in that time, you could not just have it as a vocational hobby. So you had to go to the college, 4-5 years college and have a diploma and be a part of a repertory theater. And so that was… I was there and I was playing Chekhov, and Shakespeare, and Moliere, all the classics.
TAJCI
Classics, and that’s very different, I find from American way of becoming an actress.
OLGA
Yea because it’s more entrepreneurs here. People get together for something and disperse. Sometimes in one day I could maybe play a pig in the morning for kids, then, during the day it could be a rehearsal and then the evening, it would be some kind of drama. And so it’s going on and on and it was six days a week, and it was my life.
TAJCI
And it’s a job.
OLGA
It was a job. Totally.
TAJCI
Government paid job.
OLGA
Absolutely. yea.
TAJCI
So you come from that, what happened?
OLGA
Well, I came to America in ’91.
TAJCI
And why?
OLGA
My sister, she came here in 1989 before Perestroika, free market and so and so… It was just a very painful time. Very painful time and especially for the theater where is… they started work for money more, like more like an American type and it was very hard to grow and so because my sister already went to America, I decided to join. It was just kind of a family get together, not get together… joined family, a reunited.
TAJCI
And Berlin Wall fell in ’89 and that was the beginning of the end of communist countries.
OLGA
Exactly! Exactly!
And so, I flew to New York and I expected to see that big buildings what we saw in the movies, because Manhattan, that was the type of America. That was America.
So in New York, I saw something. Then she took me by car and we went though Maryland to Nashville. And when I came to Nashville, I was kind of asking her, where is the city, actually? Because, for me it was a village. It was, like small buildings, it was like a nice greens everywhere, just separate buildings. I said, where is the city? When are we going to see Nashville city? She said, that’s the city. That was a shock for me. I was… but then, in a couple of months, I really fell in love with that, because it was so quiet, it was clean, it was secure. I fell in love with that. So that’s why I decided to stay here and along the way I got married and that kind of stuff, but make the story short, I stayed in America and I became a citizen, I brought my son, and so he grew up here.
And the life kind of… it’s like from crumbles of the dough, started to put together like in a bowl. And right now, I feel like I’m in a place. I’m in a right place.
TAJCI
Yes!
OLGA
So that’s a wonderful. This is the most important that I made the right choice.
TAJCI
And I know exactly what you mean, to us… to me also, the cultural shock was the rest of America. I also expected America to look like New York.
OLGA
Exactly!
BREAK
Olga’s choice to leave her acting career in Russia and move to Nashville, brings her the life change she needs.
Up next: How series of waking up in America moments prepares Olga for the big shift.
TAJCI
So you fall in love with Nashville. You live in Nashville now with your son and everything is good.
OLGA
The first ten years took me to speak English, because I came with no language. I came without any custom to… I remember that the first time I saw the check book and, you know, I was a grown woman with a child, and I’ve never seen a check book. I remember how the first time I was amazed by richness of Walmart. It was just like… it was a discovery… And I actually… I hit my head through the door because it was so clean I didn’t see it and boom… That was waking up in America. Totally.
And I remember that my first photos that I sent to Russia, it was from a store, from a grocery store.
TAJCI
Me too! I had the same thing. I was standing in the produce isle.
OLGA
Exactly!
TAJCI
And going, wow, people! You have 12 different kinds of apples!
OLGA
You know like… in Russia, the cheese is a cheese. You have cheese? Yes. Here cheese… What type? What this? It’s like 25, 30, 50… because for us, if you have any cheese, it’s really good. So that was my… another kind of side of shock. But it was pleasant surprise that I don’t need to fight for the food. And plus the people here… the people…
This is most important that people in America, they are so open, they are ready to help. You know, they helped me to put everything in my apartment, they were bringing me food and everything. Not just because they kind of thought that I’m so needy, but they want to share.
And so, that’s… I fell in love with people. I think that American people are, they are pretty naive, to the point that, from the point of view that they don’t know the life in another countries, so they take that life for granted and they just bickering about it, still. But, they are kind of very naive like children. And so that’s why… it’s very endearing for me. So that they always ask me about my life in Russia, they always have interest and so… I was kind of getting into life and making friendships and people taught me a lot and they were very patient about my language, about my kind of hard way to get into it… And eventually, it kind of came together. So… I’m so glad that everybody can understand me now. Hopefully!
TAJCI
Yes! So, then your waking up moment.
OLGA
When I came to America, I pretty much fled from Russia, because it was very hard in every sense of it to leave every day life, financially and so on and so on…
When I came here, and I satisfied my hunger for food, for shelter, for everything, my soul was hungry for creativity.
I tried different activities. I went to ballroom dance, I went to that… Toast Masters, I tried to become a part of some group and do something but I never got kind of rooted. I still like ballroom dance, don’t get me wrong, but I never considered paintings as one of my activities because I knew I could not paint.
TAJCI
Right.
OLGA
So, when people tell me, I can not paint, I say I can relate to you completely. Because I could not paint 12 years ago.
BREAK
After she satisfied her hunger for food, for shelter, Olga felt that her soul was hungry for creativity.
UP NEXT: Find out what Olga credits for her fulfillment and how she is now giving back.
OLGA
So, literally, now it’s 2015, in 2003 I went to my first place in Centennial Park. I decided, ok, let me just go, put a mark “I went”, because I know for sure that I could not paint, but let me just do it because I always was curious. I was ready to try everything at least once. I tried, if I didn’t like it, I’d back off. But at least I tried.
TAJCI
And I understand, I know just how much courage that takes, that took, because, we grew up in a system that unless you started young, you could never be an artist. Unless you went to school, the Academy and were, had the seal of proof by your teachers, by the system, you could not ever consider yourself an artist.
OLGA
Exactly. Anyway, that was very amazing for me because I went to the pretty much like a vocational group at Centennial Park, it was maybe 10 adults and I was shaking. I was thinking, oh my God, everybody… I expected that everybody would stand with the pallet and paint beautifully and I would come and I would be like an ugly duckling there. So I was tired to feel myself inadequate. Because all children spoke English and I didn’t.
Think about it. Little baby, little child speaks English and I, an adult can not. That’s already a shift, so that kind of added to my insecurity.
But the teacher Hazel King, she is a legend in town, she is probably 95 right now. But she welcomed me with the open arms and an open heart and it was my first entry to that world. And I did not think much what would it evolve. I just started to go. I started to paint and step by step, I painted more and more and went to different classes and I started to do different shows. It was just like, you know, it’s like you start skiing. Stand there, hey go! And too-doot, I even could not stop! I was just going, going, going… seriously… through all this ups and downs, ups… I’m still up and down, but this is part of it. This is part of it.
So, this is my second gallery here and we are… I consider that not just my only personal achievement, but the Nashville itself.. It’s the biggest part of it.
TAJCI
Yes, the community and environment that allowed you to…
OLGA
Not only allowed me but supported me.
TAJCI
Supported.. yes!
OLGA
They just encouraged me, they said you can do it!
TAJCI
Coming into your creativity and becoming free helped you to deal with the insecurities.
OLGA
Exactly!
TAJCI
And what you were saying, the motivational speakers and the environment, people, and that spirit of, we want to lift you up. We want you to realize just how beautiful you are, where so many cultures… and… you know, I love my home country but there is a lot of that hard criticism.
OLGA
Yes!
TAJCI
And expectation. And it’s good. Some of it, the discipline of it is great, because it builds character, builds determination and perfection, you want to be good, not mediocre, but to have that and have this American spirit of “I’ll lift you up” cause you are beautiful.
OLGA
And also, here I learned that I can make a mistake. I can make a mistake but then I can overcome it.
So, now instead of say, hey, if I make a mistake, so I am gonna be out of
TAJCI
Shame!
OLGA
something… No! Now I actually, I started to teach, believe or not… I’m teaching now about 4 years and I started to teach it not just because I’m such a great teacher, but because I can relate to you and lift you up and say, hey you can make a mistake and you can be free. And let’s… we make mistake… I, sometimes in the classes, I intentionally make a mistake. For people to see, hey, I can make a mistake. You can make a mistake.
TAJCI
How freeing is that!
OLGA
And that itself, you can say, hey, I made a mistake, I’ll fix it. And so, easy. Because life is so short and life is so precious and so, if we are going sweat small stuff we’re never going to get anywhere.
TAJCI
Wow! Olga, you know, you have done, you are doing so much, you are, just the way you are, you make this world a better place.
OLGA
Well, I appreciate that and I hope that the people who would come to my classes would get that spirit of overcoming and enjoying and keep on going. So… by the way, I would love for you to come to my Creative Lounge. Every second Tuesday a month, I do Creative Lounge in this gallery. Every second Tuesday a month, 6-9. It’s like a party. A special party for the artists, for musicians, I invite entertainment, I invite people who already, maybe actors, dancers, just different types of art who can just that one day, just show your beauty.
TAJCI
Yes, which is really wonderful to come even if you are not… everybody is a creative and everybody is an artist in their own way. And just to be here in this space and feel that creativity and that freedom that you bring really… It’s wonderful!
TAJCI
You know what’s so cool Olga, that you… I’m here in Nashville and I feel like home. And, we are gonna do this song that takes me right into my childhood, how crazy is that.
OLGA
A Russian school?
TAJCI
Russian school! Yes. But this song… it was more from my teenage years when we were just romanticizing the love, the Russian love, right? That knows no end…
OLGA
So probably everybody knows this song anyway…
TAJCI & OLGA SING
Not even a whisper is to be heard in the garden,
Everything has calmed down until dawn.
If you only knew how dear they are to me,
The evenings near Moscow!
If you only knew how dear they are to me,
The evenings near Moscow!
The river is moving and not moving at all, All made of the moons silver.
A song sounds and is not to be heard In those quiet evenings.
A song sounds and is not to be heard In those quiet evenings.
And dawn is getting more and more visible.
TAJCI
To replay this episode or any other episode, go to WakingUpinAmerica.net. And reach out to us on our Facebook group Waking Up in America because we want to inspire you, encourage you to live the life that you are created for. Thank you so much for watching, and see you next time!
TAJCI & OLGA SING
These summer evenings near Moscow.
So, please, be so kind: You, also, don’t forget
These summer evenings near Moscow.
Add comment