The Midas touch: Russian artist transforms old, shabby walls into mesmerizing art objects

Sofia Maksimova, a Russian artist from Irkutsk, certainly has a very special source of artistic inspiration and tons of imagination: she amuses herself by transforming badly plastered walls into small pieces of art, posting “before” and “after” pics of transformed plastered walls (with drawings inspired by their beguiling kinks and contours).

Since 2015 she has been sharing her works in Russian social network Vkontakte. Having embraced Sofia’s hobby in droves, group members started to share their own fantasies on this topic.

As a child, the artist liked to see images in the contours of walls, ceilings and building facades. She imagined mythological giants, creatures and entire story plots woven into the surface.

Sofia’s favorite author is Anna Shvindt, whose works are available here. The best illustrations can also be found on Insta.

The psychological phenomenon whereby “the mind responds to a stimulus, usually an image or a sound, by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists” is known as “pareidolia”. This faculty of the human psyche sometimes is used by psychologists to understand a person’s inner world, when they are shown a non-figurative drawing and asked to explain what it portrays.

Fancy feeling a bit “pareidolic” yourself? Take a look at more of Sofia’s pictures: