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Alexey Ignatchenko |
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This is a long story. When we went to visit Nina's grandparents in June 2003, Nina entered Russia as a Russian citizen on American passport, which was an accidental mistake. This created a lot of problems, including tense relations between two States. Since Nina was born in US and she is an American citizen, American embassy wrote a note to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the note was rejected. Nina had to stay there longer than it was originally planned. A lot of adventures had happened on attempts to bring her back to USA. For example, one day I had to visit the head of the Moscow OVIR ( an agency issuing Russian passports, and dealing with visas). He opens his office to public just for 2 hours a week, on Tuesday from 4pm to 6 pm. I had to stay in the waiting line for 12 hours from 4am until 4pm. There were five people in front of me, and several hundred behind. In 4.30 pm I got to his office, but he referred me to OVIR in another city… It was only by the end of August, when Nina was finally rescued. After I spent all of my 3 weeks vacation, I had to come back to USA in July without Nina. While I was waiting, talking to her over the phone every day, I painted this portrait day by day, as I remembered her - cheerful, cute, little girl with curious eyes. Here she is. You can see the progress of my work step by step. Alexey Ignatchenko. September 2003. |
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