Architectural wrought iron Urn. Estate Gates Pillons. Toronto. ON.
Architectural wrought iron Urn. Estate Gates Pillons. Toronto. ON.

... I started to draw when I was a young child and today I keep drawing. Holding a pencil in my hand, I try to realise what is art, sculpture, where a stroke of the pencil and a hit of my hammer ends the craft and begins real art ...

 

Previously I loved, and now I love pencil, nib, and paint, but paint I like less. As for coloured techniques, it is pastel coloured technique that still excites me, but colourful pastels are still graphics. Graphics are the essence of things, which show its shape and its body. Painting is the only a decoration, blush and make up.

      
Ornamental driveway gates. Hand drawing  design. Oleg Shyshkin
Ornamental driveway gates. Hand drawing design. Oleg Shyshkin

A single graphic line may express more than the whole painting. Therefore, I was always drawn to the metal, especially wrought iron. Wrought iron is very graphical. Any technique does not pass the line so perfectly as forged metal does. After architecture and painting forging has become my third art. All forged articles contain elements of sculpture. Forging is the most rewarding technique for sculpture. Forging, wrought iron is nature itself.

 
Interior wrought iron classic stair railing. Antic wrought iron style. Baroque. Hewlett Harbour, New York.

I also realised that the sculpture can be functional and non-functional. In my opinion non-functional sculpture is the thing in itself. Such sculptures exist in themselves, and, it seems to me they say: "We are real sculptures, we are pure art, admire us, we have been created for the sake of art itself." It is my deep conviction that art in general, and sculpture in particular, should not be arrogant and looking at everyone down, since it is supposed to be functional and should be functional, to surround a man, to serve him every day and every minute.

 
Hand hot forged steel leaf.. Detail of console  table "Tiger Eye".
Hand hot forged steel leaf.. Detail of console table "Tiger Eye".

Art should be an integral part of life, it is supposed to make a man happy not only in museums, squares, but at home and the backyard as well. Therefore, while creating a kind or a functional thing, whether it's gate or lights, household items or a gazebo, a fountain or a mailbox, I am always trying to find another look at them, trying to breathe into them the soul, to make them alive, unusual, and then they suddenly become a masterpiece of art ...

 
OLEG SHYSHKIN,Director of Operations.
Wrought iron weather van with hand hot forged balcony railings. Roof of the house.. Two of corner iron flags and classic stile of guard rails.Private residence. Long Island, NY
Wrought iron weather van with hand hot forged balcony railings. Roof of the house.. Two of corner iron flags and classic stile of guard rails.Private residence. Long Island, NY