Irina Chirkova

Foreign Associate Member

Great Mother

Irina was born in the industrial city Nyzhnii Tagil in the Urals. She always enjoyed drawing and painting, and once won a children's pavement painting competition.

She became an art teacher for a few years and now works with young children at a kindergarten; the expressive faces of her pupils always inspires her.

Irina was also interested in ceramics and painting on silk but her most enjoyable and satisfying occupation is doll making.

All her dolls are one-of-a-kind, sculpted directly from the clay. She believes that the face (particularly the eyes and lips) is the most important part of a doll and works very carefully on them, believing the painting gives character and mood in a doll, making it 'alive'.

Irina prefers creating children, fantasy creatures, angels etc.