At the age of 60 I discovered that painting was the most enjoyable activity for me. I have done many things before, both unpleasant and pleasant. Among the pleasures I can name scientific work (I am the author of more than 200 works), pedagogical activity (I have been lecturing at higher education institutions for more than 50 years), writing poems (I am the author of 800 poems, 8 poetry collections), drama (my plays were staged at the drama theaters of Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi and Sokhumi), getting acquainted with the works of others (books, films, plays, drawings…), communicating with children (with any child and especially with mine – I have 5 children, 6 grandchildren and 2 grandchildren) and others. The painting suddenly weighed it all down and took over all my time.

I did not know how to paint and I spent days and nights painting. I was drawing with everything and on everything. Showing some drawings to others was also inconvenient as a completely irrelevant inscription might have appeared on the back of the work. It could appear for the simple reason that the drawing was done on the packaging of some product. My readers became appreciative of my works when I published poetry collections with my own illustrations. Then there were two solo exhibitions – “Poets Also Paint” (“Gala-Gallery”, 2010) and “Our Black-and-white and Colorful World” (Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Contemporary Art, 2015).

As I am told, I have created more than 1000 drawings. I still draw at the age of 80. My paintings are no longer as diverse and storyful as they were even ten years ago, but I think I still have kind and trustworthy characters who are appreciated and remembered, which makes me happy as a child.

I love painting, I love life; painting is life.”

Linguist, poet and dramaturgist. Doctor of Philology (1986), Professor (1988), Corresponding Member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences (2001), Academician of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences (2013), Academician-Secretary of the Language, Literature and Art Department of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences (2005-present) .