We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lena Volkova. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lena below.
Lena, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
My most meaningful project, without a doubt, was the conversion of our cosplay meetup group into an arts education nonprofit. I know this probably sounds like the most DC answer ever, but establishing a nonprofit and being able to give directly back to the community that has given so much to me personally, has been easily one of my favorite accomplishments.
To put things into context– I grew up making costumes and playing pretend. I was that kid with a big imagination. As an only child, I didn’t have much choice. It’s something that has always stuck with me. If anything, I at least had Halloween to look forward to. Fast forward to me being an adult and I’m out of grad school, working my first real job, and not having much time for anything else. One day I’m sitting in my cubicle and I remember thinking to myself, “well, this is your life for the next 50 years” and completely hating that feeling and the idea of living that kind of life for the next 50 years. The next day I found myself seriously questioning my life and why I was feeling the way that I did. Any degree of suicidal ideation is concerning, so I needed to take a step back and examine why I was having those thoughts and whether or not I needed to call my therapist. I started looking at what it was that I was feeling and what could have caused it. I felt that I was stuck. At the time, I was a government contractor working in IT and a large portion of the job was fairly mundane. I spent my days looking for problems and fixing them before they happened (in theory). In a way, it can be creative work, but it wasn’t the kind of creative thinking that I craved. There was little room to express myself in a way that I felt was meaningful. My days were basically work, sleep, work, sleep, work…
While I was doing this self-inventory I caught myself looking at old pictures of me in costume and the things that I made over the years and I decided to give that a try. I felt like I needed an outlet to express myself and I had a lot of fun making costumes and going to conventions. I had taken a break from cosplay for a few years to focus on my job and felt like it was time to come back. By having that creative outlet and the ability to express myself creatively in ways that only a costume can, I’ve been able to deal with some pretty dire challenges in my life and work through past trauma with these characters.
Fast forward to a few years later and I’m cosplaying regularly and I’m going to conventions in my spare time, making friends in the community, and feeling pretty good about my life. Unfortunately, my job got relocated to DC, which meant I had to move to the area. Other than the people that I worked with, I didn’t know anyone else here, let alone know what communities existed, so I had to start all over again. I was able to find my community and my friends through the cosplay and costuming communities here. Because of them, I felt welcomed and exactly where I should be. They helped make DC really feel like home.
Similarly, shortly after I moved to the area, I joined a cosplay meetup group called DC Cosplay Photo Shoots and they were doing meetups with photographers about every month. A few months after I joined, the person who originally ran the group moved and handed over the reins to the group’s helpers, some of whom were my friends. During that transition period, my friends and I talked about what direction the group could go, what is it we wanted to do, and what was possible. We wanted to do more than just photoshoots– we wanted to teach and share our collective knowledge with people, network and find new collaborators, and so much more! Because we had such an incredibly talented and diverse community, we felt that we were starting to limit ourselves as creatives by merely being a social meetup group. We wanted to do more and give back to our community.
I’m having these conversations with my friends and providing feedback on what should be improved and our limitations. Eventually, some of the original helpers move on and the remaining ones (now called “Admins”) are running into issues like needing liability insurance to book venues, photography permits (because you can’t just show up somewhere without the proper permits), needing a bank account to pay for things, potential legal issues to avoid, etc. I had suggested we either incorporate or become a nonprofit– shift all of our personal liability to an organizational liability, but none of us knew how to do that. It was new territory for all of us. After one of our photoshoot events, another friend of mine and I were talking and I filled her in on some of the issues we were running into with the group and trying to become a nonprofit. Serendipitously, this friend happened to be the president of the International Costumers Guild and was willing to sponsor us as a special interest group (SIG) under their nonprofit umbrella. Shortly after, I was brought on as a full board member and the rest is history.
Since then we’ve partnered with other arts nonprofits to provide costuming and photography workshops in addition to our monthly photo collaboration events. We have an active community that is constantly working with each other and helping each other grow as creatives. It’s been wonderful to see our belief in “community, not competition” actually come to fruition. On top of that, the association with our nonprofit has allowed our community opportunities that would not have been possible, and it’s been thrilling to see everyone’s progress and growth!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Hello, hi!
I’m the person behind Lena Volkova (Lokelicious Cosplay). I typically try to use my stage name when talking about my costume work and try to keep it separate from my personal life. Also, it’s not like my government name is some closely guarded secret. Most people who know me personally know about this and my “double life.”
Lena is a stage name I’ve been using for about a decade now and is what I use for my public persona. Lena and I are two very different people– Lena is a very exaggerated version of certain parts of my personality played to comic effect, and I am far more reserved and quiet. I started using the stage name when I created my social media for my cosplay, as I wanted to separate my personal life from my (fairly public) hobby. Although it has gotten better these days, there was a time when having a hobby that is considered to be “weird” or different, like cosplay, could prevent someone from finding a well-paying job. Also, working in a highly visual medium can sometimes attract people who want to know a little too much about you, and I’m not comfortable sharing details about my personal life. So I created the name and the persona to keep that part of my life separate from everything else and to afford some degree of privacy. Thankfully, I work in an industry where having a weird hobby does not matter and most of the people in my life are very supportive of my shenanigans. Kids, take notes.
I started making costumes as a kid. Halloween was (and still is) my favorite holiday and I would look forward to making whatever costume or character that I wanted to be. I tended to gravitate more toward characters that you couldn’t find in stores, or what you could find were some plastic monstrosity, so I learned how to sew and construct garments from my dad. I started going all out with my costumes in college and by the time I hit grad school, I learned that you could actually wear the costumes you make to the convention and it was encouraged! So fast forward to Blizzcon 2010 and I’m wearing a costume I threw together in a month thinking it was the best thing ever and having the time of my life.
My dad knew the basics of garment construction and sewing and was able to lay the foundation that I needed to do more. The things that I wanted to do required quite a bit of research and knowledge and finding that information was at times frustrating. However, with persistence and time, I was able to find what I needed. Eventually, thanks to the internet, a lot of those resources and knowledge became available and people were willing to share a fraction of what they knew. Although I was able to find invaluable resources that helped me learn the skills and techniques that I needed to be successful as a costumer, it still cost a lot of time and money. For a lot of people, this can be highly disadvantageous in trying out anything for the first time or going further with one’s skills. I felt that a lot of the access needed for many of those resources and knowledge was rooted in socioeconomic privilege. Because I had struggled to find information and learn techniques and knowing the frustration that came with it, I freely gave away information and taught people how to make things– how to sew, how to make foam armor, how to upcycle preexisting clothes, etc. I made it a point to help people achieve their goals and to do more than they imagined they could. At the same time, I used my background as a professional model and taught cosplayers how to model– how to stand in front of the camera, hold one’s posture, and what sort of behavior is unacceptable from photographers. This is all information that was available to anyone willing to pay for it, but I was giving it out freely. I also learned that part of the reason why I struggled with understanding some of the available resources was because I’m neurodivergent– a substantial number of guides and tutorials that are out there aren’t ADHD-friendly. Because of my own struggle, I have made it a point to present material in a way that is more accessible to other people with ADHD.
When I joined DC Cosplay Photo Shoots, it was largely a social meetup group where photographers and cosplayers would meet up once a month and do a photoshoot at a different location each month. Through simply talking to people there and making friends, I started helping people with their projects, providing guidance and advice on construction, or modeling tips. This spirit of collaboration and community is what changed the trajectory of the group to evolve into a nonprofit. Many others in the group felt similarly to how I felt about knowledge gatekeeping and wanted to do something about it. Eventually, we started holding workshops and I was asked to teach a variety of topics (modeling and costume design). Our new nonprofit became a model for other groups who wanted to do similar things and we started seeing groups with similar goals and missions structured after ours. We were more than happy to help them get up and running or to give advice on challenges and successes in our communities. Their successes are shared successes within our community and we could not be prouder of how far things have come! All of these experiences have afforded me invaluable teaching opportunities to every demographic imaginable, and have provided the chance for me to show people that costuming is a very fulling and rewarding art form.
I’ve been with DC Cosplay Photo Shoots for about six years now and I am beyond thrilled with seeing how much we’ve grown as a community and how much our members have grown as creatives. I look back on my own work and see how much I’ve grown and how much I’ve learned from being a part of this community. I’ve been doing cosplay for a little over a decade and I cannot describe how much this community has given to me. My best friends– my chosen family, are all from this community, and I could not have imagined how rich my would become with having them in it. I’ve seen our small community evolve from a social meetup group to a nonprofit and deal with the challenges associated with growth and change.
We’ve learned a lot along the way– made mistakes, took risks, etc., but we also gained a lot of wisdom from those choices and experiences. For example, accountability. One issue that cosplayers run into is at photography clubs, photographers tend to treat them like models and often won’t deliver images to the cosplayers they worked with. So what incentive does a cosplayer have to take hours out of their day to get into costume, figure out fairly complex travel logistics with costumes, and pose for hours with heavy costumes and props without receiving anything in return? For photographers, what incentive do they have to show up to an event and follow through with image delivery? We kept it simple. We require that photographers submit two images per cosplayer they worked with to our website. We’ll keep track of the images, do the online image hosting, and all of the admin work, so the only thing the photographers need to worry about is delivering at least the bare minimum. This cuts down on the sheer volume of work the photographers feel that they need to do at the end of a photoshoot (edits, etc.), and this also guarantees that cosplayers receive a minimum of two images. We also give our photographers 30 days after the event to deliver their images, giving them time to work on them, and provide breathing room if needed. This stops our cosplayers from being impatient and harassing the photographers for the images. If images aren’t submitted after 30 days, our admins will handle the situation and work as mediators if needed. If a photographer fails to provide anything, they’re removed from the community and cannot participate in future events. We make it a point to protect our community and keep it safe and as collaborative as possible for our people.
As creatives, it’s important that we have safe spaces to work, collaborate, and express ourselves. DC Cosplay Photo Shoots has built what is essentially a sandbox where our members can collaborate in a safe environment. We accept all persons, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, race, religion, veteran status, nationality, or other legally protected status. We have people from incredibly diverse backgrounds and walks of life that under typical circumstances probably would have never crossed paths, but are good friends and collaborators thanks to this group. We have taken great pride in cultivating a culture that offers a space that is free of sexually predatory or harassing behavior, allowing our creatives to feel safe and secure while collaborating. Our monthly events are private photo shoots that we book far in advance with our venues, and offer us the space to work freely without interference from the public. For many of our members, having these kinds of spaces helps them feel safe to freely express themselves without the fear of ridicule or judgment.
We have been successful at this by being active within our own community and being transparent about how our nonprofit is run. We have actively worked to demolish silos within our own charters and have been proactive in inclusiveness and working against the clique mentality. We have taken our experiences from our other groups and used that wisdom to help foster the kind of environment that we want. However, as complex as social challenges are, they pale in comparison to the financial challenges that we face as a small nonprofit. Unfortunately, we have operating costs and venue rentals that we have to consider, and we don’t like having to raise prices. Initially, our events were either free or $2, but these days they can vary from $25-$40, depending on the venue. We did okay for a while, but like many other organizations, we struggled during the pandemic. Most of our revenue comes from our events and we use that revenue to book other venues. This becomes impossible during a global pandemic.
We were faced with the hard choice of either pushing through and hoping that everything will blow over quickly, or shutting down entirely. We decided to run at the bare minimum to at least keep the lights on, ask for whatever donations we could, and held many free virtual events to keep our community engaged. Our biggest fear was that people would get bored and move on and we wouldn’t be able to recover. Thankfully, that was not the case and people were eager to return and collaborate once again in person. We made it a strict point to create COVID guidelines and policies addressing concerns about health and safety. We put the health and safety of our community first over everything else. We may have ruffled some feathers in the process, but we did our due diligence to keep everyone safe during some very unprecedented and unsure times. We also made some changes to how we book venues and schedule photo shoots and workshops. Before the pandemic, an event could be announced up to two months in advance. Since returning to in-person events in 2021, we have announced all of our events up to a year in advance. This has helped out with the stress of scheduling during an already unpredictable time. We offered subscription packages for the first time last year– allowing members to prepay for their events in advance. Attendees would simply have to register for the events they’d like to participate and only pay a one-time fee. Changing that part of our operations made it possible for us to book venues that were previously out of our reach due to cost.
The entire experience has been an invaluable learning lab and I’m amazed at everything that we’ve had to learn because of it. I never thought in my wildest dreams I’d be capable of doing half of the things I’m doing now in our day-to-day operations. It’s amazing what a little support and community can do.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
There is a drive, an underlying current that drives the need to create. I describe it to my noncreative friends as a fire that needs to be kept lit. If I don’t create and feed that fire, it dims and it wreaks havoc on my mental health and overall well-being. But if I keep it burning and shining brightly, I glow.
You can actually see the difference in people who are allowed to let their fires grow and who are forced to stifle or smother theirs, there’s something behind their eyes that looks different. Almost like there’s a persistent sadness or longing waiting to be addressed. These are people that are wanting to express themselves and be seen. I have taught for many years and you can see it when a student lights up because they found excites them, you can also see when they’ve had to stuff it down and repress it. I saw that a lot growing up where kids who were really good at the arts weren’t allowed to pursue further study because their parents didn’t want them to make a career out of it. There was so much lost creativity and potential because of it.
I think people also need to understand that even if you’re not a professional artist or creative, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have any creative pursuits or outlets. People will often mistakenly assign value to something based upon monetary gain and fail to recognize that even though it’s not being used to earn money, it still has value. It still is important. It is still worth doing.
I also feel if we as a society were given more free time to enjoy creative pursuits, we’d all be a lot happier and a lot less stressed.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Stop devaluing arts and creatives as a whole. People are quick to scoff that an arts degree is “worthless” and that you’re probably better off getting a “real” job, but they don’t seem to realize that a substantial portion of their life that they enjoy is possible because of creatives. Someone had to design the buildings we inhabit. Someone refined the idea of what a car should look like. Someone else designed the logo for your favorite sports team. Designed that shirt you’re wearing. The pattern on your fabric– someone designed that. Someone else wrote the script for that tv show you like or that song you sang to on the way to work this morning. Everywhere you go, you are surrounded by art and other people’s creativity. Instead of scoffing at it and devaluing it, why not add to it?
This came abundantly clear during the pandemic when no one couldn’t do anything else but sit at home and find ways to pass the time. People turned to streaming services to watch tv shows or movies. People listened to music. They bought furniture and rearranged their homes. Who is the driving force behind all of these things? Movies, television, music, design? Creatives. And unfortunately, creatives struggled immensely because it was incredibly difficult to get work the traditional way, which meant they weren’t getting paid. I know film and theater got hit pretty hard.
Hearing people make degrading comments about creatives is embarrassing enough, but there’s this false narrative about certain degrees having more value than others. It infuriates me because I see parents use it as a driving force to bully or belittle their children out of following creative pursuits. I have what is considered to be a “useful” degree (Biology) and there was a time when I was on welfare and struggling in poverty while my “starving artist” friends became graphic designers and were getting paid pretty good money. I was happy for them, but at the same time felt like I was lied to because I was told my entire life that if I dropped theater and art and go into the sciences instead, I would never have to ever worry about paying my bills. Well, turns out that’s not entirely true. I stopped pursuing things that I loved because I was discouraged from making it a career. Now as an adult, I mainly work to fund my creative pursuits. And student loans. Ew.
So parents– stop discouraging your kids from being creatives. Don’t tell them to have a “backup plan.” That’s awful. Encourage them to pursue fields that can complement their creative degrees. Are they in visual arts? Maybe encourage a marketing minor or double major? Are they in theater? Maybe suggest a political science course or two to enhance their curriculum? Music? How about looking into music production? The possibilities are endless– just don’t stifle them or hurt their spirit. Especially based upon some desire for them to make a lot of money. Those kids end up growing up into wounded and hurt adults and we don’t need any more of that.
Contact Info:
- Website: lenavolkova.com
- Instagram: @lokelicious
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lokesanna
- Twitter: @redbandlenav
- Other: DC Cosplay Photo Shoots info: dccosplayphotoshoots.org instagram.com/dccosplayphoto
Image Credits
Dan Arango Photography, Angela Melito, Brad Behles Photography, Jay’s Fine Art Photography