About YanGrin

I was born in a small town in Ukraine called Uman, on February 17th 1980 I was a little chubby kid, everybody said that I was very loud all the time, demanding and requiring everybody to be around me.

As I grew, my parents found that at the age of 4 they can give me a few papers and pencils, and I would sit there for hours sketching some weird lines and shapes and I would not say a word, in fact I would not make a sound whatsoever.

Sometime passed by, and I fall in love in those Walt Disney characters, Mickey mouse, Donald duck, Pluto and so forth. Every kid at that time and at my age loved these cartoons… I had a bit of different interest in them, I loved to draw them! I used to sit for hours at the table in the kitchen and redrawing these cartoons characters and I was at the time only 5 years old.

Later on my parents noticed that my drawings that I did in the preschool are hanging on the walls of my school, they came-up to one of my teachers and asked them, why are you putting our child’s drawings on the wall? To which the teacher answered: because they are really good and they definitely don’t look like a 5 year old kid drew them.

My parents somehow did not pay much attention to those words and kept on buying me pencils and paper, etc. and I kept on drawing…

At the age of 7 I went to the first grade, and if you are “my reader” are from the ex Soviet Union, you would know that at that time this country being under the communistic regime, everybody was like everybody else and everybody wanted to be pretty much the same way, being grown up on the propaganda that everyone has to be a hero for your country and die for it, every kid in the first grade wanted to be only few things… Firefighter, Policeman, Aircraft Pilot or a Space Pilot much like Yuri Gagarin…

First day in school everybody dressed nicely in white and blue uniform, being greeted at school by the principal and teachers, sitting down in classes and obviously the first words that are flying in the classroom are the questions of the teacher “you, what is your name? And who would you like to become when you’d grow-up?” and the answers “my name is, so and so… and I would like to become a policeman, firefighter, pilot, space pilot like Yuri Gagarin!” and that was pretty much it… everybody wanted to be a hero! For that dictating, unfair and money hungry communistic regime.

My turn to stand-up and answer the same questions like everybody else did… Hello! Came from the teacher, and what is your name? Yan! I answered, what is your name?!? Yan! A said again. Hmm… you have a very unusual name… is that polish?
No, it’s Jewish! I answered. Oh… really? Yes really! Um… ok, Yan, and what would you like to became when you’d grow-up? Me? I what to be an Artists, Painter! What?!?!? The teacher nearly fainted… Yan… did you know that painters are drunk, poor, homeless, and ugly people! Hold on kids I’ll be right back. And she went to call for the school principal; they came and called me to step outside. Outside of the classroom they asked me; where did I have this idea from? And I said nowhere that is my dream! So they asked me to come with my parents the next day because if I wont they will have no other choice than expelling me from school. Very good beginning of my first grade in school don’t you think?

The years have past and I grew and still was holding on to my ideas and dreams! Mind you being hated just because I am a Jewish boy and apart from that I want to become an artist and not some pilot or firefighter hero. It wasn’t that easy for me back than.

In 1990 we immigrated to Israel, beautiful and sunny country… I was 10 years old at the time, and still was drawing nearly every day, majority of the time at nights; just because I felt like this is the time I can really concentrate on my drawings. At the age of 14 I was introduced to a Private School of Fine Arts, and my parents have decided to send me to that school, with a hope to keep me of the streets, so I would not become some criminal or worse. Since in my city, the crime and drugs was on the highest level in Israel at the time.

I’ve started going to that school after my high school hours, meaning in the afternoon. First year was very hard, because I got used to the fact that I can draw whatever I want and whenever I want, and here I have to do it every time I’m in the class for three hours and I have to draw what our teacher would tell us to draw; flowers, compositions, bottles, cans, faces, people, etc. I always had arguments and disagreements with my teacher, up-until one day when she actually noticed what I draw when nobody looks…

She asked me to come with her after class; I asked her, where are we going? And she answered; to my house, I want to show you something. We came to her house, she made us some coffee and pooled out a book from the book shelve that she had build right in the middle of the living room. She opened the book, asked me to sit closer, and than she showed me an image of a painting that looked very much like mine. She asked me; did you see that painting before? No… why do you ask? Do you know who the artist of this painting is? No! Why? Well… it seems like your drawings that you do in pencil look very much alike as this one here and this one here and this one right here…

And that was the moment when I was tolled that I have a surrealistic style and the artist that I paint very similar to, is the greatest Salvador Dali, the creator and the leader of the surrealistic style and society.

A year after I was accepted to a professional program at my high school that was already considered as a technical college. The program that I got into was Advertising Design and Manual Graphic Design, and that was September 1995.

During the period of me being on those two schools I have worked in so many different fields; I designed and executed two Fashion Design collections, that after went to stores for sale, worked as a hair designer in an upscale hair styling salon, I was drawing different hair styles and clients would buy it from me, and the hair stylist would style their hair by my sketches. I also designed and managed a project of interior design, one of them was for a bar and the other one for a private residence.

In 1998 I successfully graduated from Advertising Design and Manual Graphic Design and the Private School of Fine Arts. Same year I was officially recognized as a Surrealist Artist and Modern designer by the Art Committee at the city hall of the City Ashdod, that happened a week after my last exhibition which was a success.

Following my dreams, I leave to New York, United States in hopes to find my path to become an artist and designer at that country. Being there for three months I didn’t found anything that would appeal to me at the time, so I go back to Israel and on the way back I stopped by Paris, France, unfortunately I couldn’t stay for a long there so I continued to Israel and joined the Israeli defense forces (Army). I spend two years in the army, jumping from one place to the other, trying different things, and at the end I gained another few skills, I became one of the best weapon masters in my base and I also finished trainings for sniper. That was quite interesting, given the fact that I am a very peaceful individual and all my life tried as much as possible to avoid any fights or conflicts with whomever it is. However, I finished my two years of the army and signed-up for a computer animation courses, where I’ve learned how the animation world works today and which software they use and how to create animation using the computer. After finishing that, I’ve decided to take a break and went travel around the whole country, in just 5 months I’ve been to almost every city and tourism place in Israel and had just a peak at Egypt.

Continuing following my dreams and passion I packed my things, sold the rest, and left to Milan, Italy. After the arrival to the airport they told me that I can’t enter the country because I did not had a visa to Italy, being upset and crushed, because I really wanted to live in Italy, I continue to Canada, where my parents was already for about two years.

I arrived to Canada on December 2000, pretty much in a week I found a job and started working as any other new coming immigrant I found a very low paid job as a general laborer, I was getting about $1,200 a month and it was barley for anything, but I was strong and I had my goals and dreams, so I signed-up to school for New Technology studies, yeah, I know, kind of not my field of passion, but I got interested in that and decided to go and study that. I finished first year that covered Internet Communications, that was very interesting, and then I had to enter the second year that would cover Java Programming, I did and after just a few weeks I dropped out, really did not like the whole programming thing!

Just few months after I’ve started my study in the field of Web design and computerized Graphic design on my own, spending every minute of my free time after work, sitting in front of the computer which I never had before in my life, and reading about it, trying things, studying from already existing designs by other people, studying the HTML coding and all of the software needed; Photoshop, Image Ready, Flash, CorelDraw, Quark Express, 3DS-Max, etc. I spent two years of working from 8 am to 5 pm and from 6 pm till 2 am studying computerized design. in the beginning of 2002 I got my first web design project, which was a big success and my client loved the results, the web site that I have designed, created, animated in flash and coded in html, raised his revenue by 12% a year, this client till this day come back to me every time he needs any design job done. Same year I signed-up to International Academy of Design & Technology (IAOD) for an Interior Design & Architectural Studies program. Finishing one year at the one of the best and prestige’s colleges of North America specialized in design, technology and film making; I have become an Interior Design & Decor consultant.

In a while after I have entered another industry; Industrial Design, I’ve designed and build a prototype of lamps collection that can be stand table lamps, mounted on the wall and hang from the ceiling, same year I design and created a unisex bags line that one of the bags is produced and I use it now. The rest of my designs are still in the table waiting for investment to go into production.

The year is 2005, and I’m receiving Canadian Web Award 2005 certificate of excellence for best web designs, a few months later I am receiving Global I.T. Services Award 2005 as a very good I.T. services provider and very good knowledge of HTML coding and web site construction, same month I have received my last award for that year and that was Web Works Design Award 2005 for a very wide and strong knowledge of design and aesthetics of a web site design.

Today I am 27 years old, officially recognized as a surrealist artist and modern designer, I teach basics of a computer usage, internet communications and graphic design, give seminars covering such topics as general design industry, color understanding, design and creation & construction of a good web site, advertising design, how to find a good graphic designer for your business and how to spend your advertising & design budget in a smart way.

I paint and design, argue with people about politics, have intellectual conversations about religion, theosophy, psychology, art, music, movies and society.

I have a passion! And if you too… consider yourself lucky and love it the way it comes!

I live my life the way I want, I create beauty and pleasure in this world and will continue doing that till the day I die!

Yan Grin
Surrealist Artist & Modern Designer