When I think back to my first childhood memories, I was always drawing—the hamsters we kept as pets at school, portraits of my elderly neighbors, and other sights from my neighborhood as well as my imagination, at times blurring the lines between the two... For as long as I can remember, my creativity has been my way of interacting with the world—of feeling, capturing, softening, sharing whatever environment I find myself in.

My artistic path started in my home city of Saint Petersburg, Russia, where I went on to study at the Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design. I moved to the United States in 1997, and most recently to Vermont, in 2021.

Today, I mainly work in two mediums—watercolor and silk painting. These techniques resemble each other in that they both require a certain fearlessness, as well as a trust for the material, in order to strike a balance between the intentional and the spontaneous. Exploring one often helps me find a new freedom, or lightness, in the other.

With watercolors, I have embarked in the wonder of plein air painting— stepping out of my studio to capture breathtaking Vermont landscapes and charming New England towns.

When it comes to silk, my work has often been centered in wearable art bearing motifs from the natural world—native plants, birds, detailed flowers.

I still wonder why exactly I create—what my mission is, if I even must have one? Today I would say that it is not necessarily to create beauty, but rather to capture, draw attention to, or translate in my own way the abundance of beauty that is around us. It is what nourishes me, and hopefully touches others.