about me

I am a child of two nations, two cultures. My roots are in a small town, a forgotten village, tucked away in the middle of Siberian Taiga. I made my home in the Pacific Northwest of Washington state, cradled by ocean on one side and misty mountains on the other. Both places are saturated with magnificent mysteries and have shaped who I am as a person and as an artist. I make peace with the duality of my identity and use it as a well of inspiration for my art.

POETRY

Poetry plays an essential role in my life. I poured over the poems of great Russian writers as a school girl. In my mature years mystic works of Rumi and Hafiz speak to my heart. I learned how to channel my feelings, visions in my mind into verse. However, poetry for me does not dwell in words only but in every living thing I encounter, in places where I find refuge, in actions that elevate my spirit.

Poetry and art are two languages I choose for self-expression. So very different in approach yet so very similar in the ways they affect and uplift people on emotional level. Lately, especially in my most recent exploratory work of  New Directions the two begin to intertwine more closely where my paintings take their inspirations from my poems and vise versa. 

my art

Trained in the classical school of art at the University of Washington, I consider myself a portrait artist. I am drawn to the beauty of the human figure, the face, the eyes. They tell so much. I also seek to go beyond the traditional definitions of portraiture. The concept of landscapes and places we live in, or come from, objects and animals we surround ourselves with as a portrait interests me.

Recently I have been exploring the spiritual and mysterious components of our existence; the profoundly personal, intimate, deep down, our human vulnerabilities, our dreams and fears, and how it all interconnects with the air particles and stardust we breathe. Stuff that makes up the portrait of a soul.

I revel in the creative process and love to experiment with different mediums, processes. Oils, acrylics, watercolors, color pencils, pastels, collage; they all have such different and wonderful properties. Like a true neo-renaissance artist of our post modern era, I want to master them all. Rather than developing a single 'signature style' I let the image in my mind dictate what materials and technique it needs to be realized into a piece of art, letting my artistic expression evolve naturally as it will.