On December 10, the first woman-stone carver of tyva,  a Laureate of  I. E. Repin Government Prize of RSFSR, Merited artist of Tuvan ASSR, Raisa  Azhievna Arakchaa, (1952-1990) would have turned 85 years. A gifted carved of wood and stone, she brought a significant contribution to the development of contemporary Tuvan stone sculpture art.  Her multifaceted  creative activities are noted in S. I. Vainshtein’s work “History of folk arts of Tuva”, and in C. M. Chervonnaya’s “Artists of Republic Tyva”.

Raisa Azhievna Arakchaa was born on December 10 1925 in village Kara-Tal of Ulug-Khem kozhuun of TNR in an arat-herder family.  As a child, under the influence of her mother and uncle, she learned to make various artifacts and toys of bark and wood. At the end of the 40’s, she got married, worked in Todzha and Ulug-Khem districts, and from 1961 in Kyzyl. This is where, under the guidance of Khertek Toibukhaa,   her  life of art began; it was a new beginning for the modest worker from a milk store.

Her work was also influenced by the work of Mongush Cherzi and Baiyndy Bair, who lived near her. She was astonished by the  reincarnation of “chonar-dash” (soft stone); in front of her eyes it would bloom, changing shades and turning here into a beautiful deer, there into a flying horse with its mane flowing in the wind.

From the first horse figure, carved in 1965 of stone, which received the master’s approval, to  masterpieces of delicate sculptures, which were exhibited in local,  in Russian, and in all-Union exhibitions in 1970-1980’s, Raisa Arakchaa underwent a fast, steep, light and joyful voyage of artistic ascent. The elegance, accuracy of her sculptures, the whimsical freedom of fantastic imagination are her characteristic signature.

Today, more than one hundreds stone carvings, dated from late 60’s to early 90’s, are kept in the collections of the National Museum of Republic Tyva.  She was one of the first artists who started making decorative vases for pencils, souvenir cups, and containers decorated with heads of wild goats on the lids, and mountain goats, horses, yaks and other animals.