"Our Ayno"

Tamara Yufa is synonymous with Karelia—the artists’ name has become something of a business card for Karelia, like Kizhi or Valaam. In her paintings, Karelia looks like the Kingdom of Water and Stone, a place where ancient legends and fairy tales were played out.

Yufa developed her love for art in her childhood in Yelets, Central Russia. Her grandfather was an icon painter and her grandma and mother were masters of lace art. The young Tamara went to Leningrad to learn drawing, then settled in Karelia, where she became mesmerized by the national epic of the Karels and the Finns, the Kalevala. She admired the women’s images in the epic songs and decided to render them in art. Her first Kalevala canvasses garnered great reviews from critics and art experts. Her fresh eye led many art critics to applaud the finesse and originality of her style.

Many recognize in her pale, slim women with dark blue eyes—deep as a Karelian lake—the traits of the artist herself. Sometimes she is called “our Ayno” (a Kalevala heroine), and the artist says there is no better compliment.

“Never try to ask an artist what they meant to say in their paintings,” she once said. But she offers a subtle hint when she confesses that her favorite fairy tale heroine is the magic frog that turned into a beautiful tsarina. She said it reminds her of the fate of the battered Russian woman: for all her hardship, the Russian woman is still capable of a magical transformation.