The soul of the Caucasus
in paintings
made of felt

Sasa Bilyalovna Meshezova was born on 28 June 1961 in Psauchye-Dakhe, a village in the Khabez district of Karachay-Cherkessia. She was the fourth of six children: three sisters and three brothers.

Creativity was always part of family life. Her older siblings sang, played the accordion and guitar, sewed and wrote poetry. The younger children watched and tried their own hand. Her parents and grandmother had a lasting influence on her. Her grandmother made clothing, decorated it with traditional patterns and made shoes for the whole family — Sasa’s first example of true craftsmanship.

After school, Sasa began working as a weaver at the Ust-Dzheguta district industrial enterprise. In 1981, she enrolled in a part-time garment production technology course at Stavropol Technical College. After graduating, she worked as a production technologist in a sewing workshop until she married.

She married in 1987. Her daughter Anetta was born in 1988, followed three years later by her son Aslan. When her children started nursery school, Sasa helped the teachers, designed costumes for celebrations and took part in performances. Working with children became another way to share her creativity.

She was later invited to teach technology and art at a school. In 1999, she enrolled in the Faculty of Art and Graphics at Karachay-Cherkess State University to train as a teacher of decorative and applied arts.

At school, Sasa established a puppet theatre, designing and sewing costumes, creating scenery and involving pupils in productions. For many years, she also ran extracurricular classes for younger and older pupils, introducing them to art, modelling-clay painting and architectural compositions.

During a university class, she discovered techniques for working with wool. The material shaped her artistic direction. Her first experiments gradually became a passion that she has pursued for more than 25 years.

She uses the natural colours of sheep’s wool in her paintings. Her favourite subjects are the landscapes of the Caucasus, horses, birds, wildlife and people. She works carefully on each composition, returning to it until it feels balanced. Preserving wool’s natural palette is an essential part of her approach.

With each new piece, she explores the texture of the material, develops new compositions and refines her craft. She describes creativity as a source of energy, strength and inspiration.

Her work has been exhibited in Moscow at VDNKh and Sparrow Hills, as well as in Mineralnye Vody, Abkhazia and Cherkessk. She has also taken part in creative projects and workshops.

Her journey brings together family traditions, years of work, teaching and a love of her homeland. Through wool painting, she preserves images of the Caucasus and shares the warmth of a material she shapes by hand.