Mikhail Starostin, a Yakut graphic artist, painter and designer, and a member of the Union of Russian Artists, was born in 1959. In his work, the artist refers to the centuries-old heritage of the world art: expressionism and abstractionism, modern art and even cave art.
Art critics note, however, that the main feature of Starostin’s pieces is national identity, sincere and sensual. Starostin’s works reveal ethnic psychology, i.e. an urge to seek a universal high meaning and a tendency to generalize the surrounding world that the artist and his characters imagine as a cosmic home/the universe, as it is represented in the heroic epic Olonkho.
The ties to native land, time and historical past inform many of Starostin’s paintings based on subjects related to the theme of road, shamans and nomads. Thus, the artist created the painting 'Waiting For Rain' under the impression of numerous academic studies of everyday life and household routines of the Northern peoples. Starostin said in an interview:
