Nice to Meet You!
From Russia With Love… to Art
Hi, I’m a self-taught artist, a mental wellness advocate, and an environmental enthusiast. I was born in Moscow in the mid-80s where I lived and worked until moving to San Diego, CA in 2015.
While painting and drawing since early childhood, I only began pursuing a career as a professional artist in 2018 when I decided to join San Dieguito Art Guild in North County San Diego.
I left my corporate marketing career of two decades to devote myself to making art and serving the art community as best I can. Since 2021, I’ve been hosting a podcast, called In The Art Scene where I interviewed art professionals from all over the world about their personal journeys and career paths. In 2023, using my marketing skills and passion for the local San Diego art community, I launched sandiegoartdirectory.com and founded a non-profit of the same name. Its mission is to support access to and promotion of the local arts and culture in San Diego County and Tijualna.
I am an active member of the Carlsbad-Oceanside Art League (COAL) and am also showing my work in group exhibitions around San Diego County.
You may find my work in private collections in the United States, Canada, and on the European Continent.
Art as a form of sanity
Are we truly free to express ourselves? Being stuck in the search of my authentic self (like most of us), I found that it’s easier to express the collective than the personal, whether it’s a reaction to social and political events, or producing art that sells.
We are chasing the idea of being accepted, being a part of something we do not control rather than being ourselves. And what does it mean “to be ourselves?” What would we create if we were free of fear, imposter syndrome, and social pressure?
It took me years and years studying psychology, yoga and mindfulness practice, and of course, therapy to realize that what I have inside is worth being expressed.
Where there are no words, images come. Where there are no sounds, colors come. I combine emotions with ideas in the hope that they will resonate with someone. If this is not the right way to connect with fellow human beings, then what is?
