VALERY IN HIS STUDIO - Moscow, Russia
A fire burnt Valery Vrady’s art studio to the ground in April, 1995. While Valery himself was not physically injured, about 2000 of his paintings and drawings were destroyed in the blaze. Nearly his entire collection of work, thirty years in the making, was gone. I can only imagine how heartbroken he must have been. If I lost all my hard drives, along with whatever photos I had stored on the internet, I’d weep: and not a cool movie cry where my eyes would well up and a single tear would roll slowly down my cheek, glistening in the sun. I’m talking heaving sobs, ugly face contortions, and slobber and snot galore. I’m not sure how long it would take me to pick up my camera again. There’s a chance that it would be a while. I hope I never have to find out. After the fire, Valery wasted little time before picking up a brush and getting back to work. Two decades later, I arrived at a charity event hosted at his combined studio and home in central Moscow, unaware of the fire or even who Valery Vrady was.
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