Welcome to aRRtwork. I’m Rostislav, resident illustrator and shop owner, and I’d love to tell you my story!
At this point, you’re probably thinking I’m just some dude with a serious obsession with foxes. You’re correct. But there’s a story there.
About me
I’ve been drawing for a long time. My parents would tell you I’ve been drawing for much longer, but I remember it really starting when I joined a weekend art school at 9 years old. It went from just a weekend thing to something much more important as well. I even studied illustration at Parsons School of Design in New York.
And for a while, after graduation, I did actively try to make a living off my art. If you happened to be walking around outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you may have seen me selling paintings and postcards (or kicking around a hackysack). But that wasn’t a direction for me in the long run.
My other studies at Parsons were in Design Thinking and ultimately this is the direction that my career took. Thankfully, it’s also a very visual process and I am constantly illustrating and drawing, as well as learning from people and their experiences.
For a recent project, I needed to learn about e-commerce and I couldn’t help but be inspired by all the creative people hustling and pushing themselves to make stuff and live their own lives. I realized how much I missed actively making and creating too, and I decided to change that. Thankfully, the tools available to me had evolved drastically and very quickly I was able to get this shop up and running.
And now we come back to the art. And the foxes. 🦊🦊🦊
About the shop
Well first off, if you didn’t get the pun, I’m RR (Rostislav Roznoshchik). Hence it’s aRRtwork – nothing to do with pirates (but the future is bright). All the artwork you see on the shop is made by me. And thankfully, this is a passionate side gig for me. This means I’m not after massive amounts of sales and mostly want to make really cool stuff, that I would love and that people would love as well. I’ve got a lot of ideas and plans on what I want to create but I figured I would start with what has been one of the biggest influences in my life and that is Exupéry’s The Little Prince.
The metaphor of the fox 🦊 and the plane ✈️ are very important to me. The fox represents friendship and responsibility, it means looking deeper at things and putting in the work. “You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed.” And the plane is about chance, and danger, and serendipity. It reminds me that even in what seems bleak, you can find meaning and magic, so you have to put yourself out there into the world, even if it’s scary.
And if I’m really honest with myself, I’ve probably been really afraid to really put my art into the world. But with this shop, that’s changing, because I have to put myself out there, and I will. Follow my instagram @arrtworkshop to see what I’m drawing, reach out to me on this page if you want to discuss custom work, and of course buy my stuff!
Best,
RR