About Yuriy Alexandrovitch Yeremenko
I was born and raised in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Russia. I started sketching and drawing when I first came to America. Since math was the only subject I was good at before I learned English, I just sketched and doodled through all my Science, English, and History classes. Numbers are interchangeable almost all over the world, so it was easy for me to get ahead and pass thru elementary and middle school until I learned the language.
I wasn't allowed to watch television in Russia, but when we came to America, we had television, with channels 4, 6, 7, and 8. Bob Ross was my first influence, I used to watch him all the time. By High School I started to play video games, and started drawing my favorite characters. Disney was a big influence in my life at that time, and I had dreams of being an illustrator or an animator for them one day. I watched nearly all the movies they produced, and visited Disney more than 5 times to this day. With a few connections, I was able to visit the artists back stages at Disney, and meet a lot of animators. I kept buying Disney artbook after artbook, and kept imitating that particular styles.
It wasn't until I picked up my first Comic book, Conan, that I found my direction. I loved to read, and to find a book that is mostly pictures and few words, "AMAZING!", I thought. It was roughly at the same time I branched out a bit and came upon Japanese Animation (anime). The amount of detail they used and amazing stories they told, I fell in love.
I knew what i wanted to do, i wanted to bring my imagination to life, my ideas, my thoughts. Drawing to me became my way to let go of anger, to find my direction, to find peace. I love the old art, from dantes inferno, the medieval art, Impressionist, and Salvador Dali, surrealism. I loved Dali, he taught me to not be confined to a box, to not stop with what the world finds a norm. To continue to reach deeper and deeper and just illustrate, to bring to life my thoughts, feelings and stories. I kept reading comic after comic, anything from Xmen, to Spiderman, Superman, Batman and my all time favorite to this day, Conan, the Barbarian. I loved fantasy, and found my world immersed in the mythology and lore or vampires, gods, pirates, knights, and dragons. To this day i dont know what my love for them is, but i cant stop drawing them, and would rather not stop. I find myself to be a Pirate, in my desire for freedom, adventure and danger. Raised as a Russian Baptist, I still follow and love the Lord, and without him i would not be where i am today, nor have what i have in my life. I am still my worst critic, a perfectionist, and as free a spirit as i can be. I love romance, adventure, and trying new things. Cary Nord, Joe Mad! Salvador Dali, and Hayao Miyazaki are the biggest influences of my art life. I love to watch anime, fantasy, and superhero movies, and enjoy the stories. My art style reflect how i feel alot of times, and how much i love the process itself, of bringing an idea or thought to life. I hope you enjoy what i have created :) thank you.
From Russia with Love,
Yuriy Yeremenko
