About
Janna Kozoub
Born in Moscow, Russia
Lives & Works in Toronto, Canada
What Inspired Me to Become an Artist
I was raised in Russia, in a family of journalists. As a child, I spent almost every summer at the dacha (a summer cottage). There, I had one of the most striking experiences, which formed my perception of the world:
One year, a village hunter brought a wolf cub from a hunting expedition in December. He put him on a chain to protect the house. When the summer came he was all grown up and I was about 8 years old at that time. One day, I saw that wolf but as I was a little child I didn’t know that it was a wolf and thought it was just a really big dog. I got some pancakes from my house and came up to him and both of us were sitting there and eating them. I visited him every day and always brought him a little something that my grandmother made. Initially, my grandmother feared for my life. Gradually she became more comfortable as she observed the growing bond between me and a wild animal. One day the wolf got off of the chain and attacked one of the neighbours' boars in a barn. The whole entire village came there and there were many men that were ready to kill the wolf. Alarmed by the commotion I rushed to find out what was happening and when I pushed through the crowd and saw my wolf-friend, his mouth dripping with blood, the boar was squealing in pain but appeared more frightened than hurt. There were hundreds of eyes and guns pointed in his direction, to them he was a beast, to me he was a friend. I approached my dear friend, took him by the chain, and lead him out of the barn. Came up to all of those people and said that if they kill him, they might as well kill me. I brought him back to his house, chained him, kissed him on his wet nose and was crying with tears of joy. Ever since that day, I understood that even if animals can’t talk like us we had a true spiritual bond with each other. When I came back home to Moscow the first thing I did was paint my very first painting of my dear wolf-friend, Muha.