In early February in 2022, I went to the real winter! Huge snow drifts were outside the window, the forest was boundless, and a quiet big river Pinega was flowing under the ice. I was in the Maryin Dom residence in the village Chakola.

In the series of illustrations I made during the residence, I wanted to combine the optics of winter and the folklore of the North, to come up with unusual inhabitants of the snow forest.