A CONVERSATION WITH THE ARTIST

Where are you from and where do you reside?

I was born in Ukraine in the city of Dnepropetrovsk currently known as Dnipro where I lived for the first twenty years. I spent the following decade in the US before moving to the French Riviera where my husband and I lived and worked for five years. We then chose to move to Dubai, UAE, then Italy and then back to the US. We now reside in Sarasota, Florida with our three children.

How has your expat experience influenced your art?

I think of my art as a culmination of those extensive multicultural experiences. Having moved around and experienced different places and cultures, I had to consistently put myself out of my comfort zone to integrate and be part of the unfamiliar. I had to find a way to make myself at home wherever I was. I like to think that my paintings explore these notions of home and belonging.

How would you describe your painting process?

I like the idea that living fully is doing something difficult, something that makes you uneasy and pushes you into the unknown. What if I do this? What if I don’t? I paint, it seems to me, the way I’ve lived my life always throwing myself into the unfamiliar surroundings.

While a painting starts easy and exciting for me as I drop my first washes of colour, it gets increasingly difficult as I progress. I never know if my next move will work - I fear I might take it too far and the painting becomes too painterly. I don’t want that. I want my paintings to look light and easy. So, each decision is risk taking in a way. It keeps me on the edge. This feeling of exhilaration, as well as the desire to create something that didn’t exist before are what keeps me painting.

Why do you paint?

Although I like the idea of painting for the sake of painting, my main reason for picking up a brush is to stop thinking. The political turmoil in my homeland and my family living through it causes ongoing pain and despair. Painting helps cope with it.

My husband’s recent cancer diagnosis came as a shock too - painting through his six-month long treatment helped to silence the negative voices in my head in order to carry on.

Painting and other creative endeavors is also a big part of the special moments I have with my three children. We started making art together when they were two years old.

Are you formally trained or self-taught?

The latter. I took drawing classes growing up and art history classes when in college. I did enroll into a painting workshop but found it a hindrance rather than help. Watching others paint imposes their own aesthetic onto you. I didn’t want that. I wanted to preserve my own aesthetic style, knowing that it was different and unique, and thus decided to learn and develop my painting technique on my own by experimenting.

Can you elaborate on your background?

I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Milwaukee and a Master’s degree from Universite de Nice Sophia-Antipolis. The focus of most of my studies was on communications and management.

My art studies took place while in college in Ukraine followed by occasional art workshops throughout my life. I often drew, painted and crafted through my secondary school. It was at the age of 14 when my art teacher advised my parents I should pursue art studies in college. While I did take few classes, my parents and I didn’t view it as a viable career path at that time, so I focused on studying linguistics and foreign languages while in Ukraine and also St. Petersburg, Russia. I’m glad we made that choice as it took me all over the world. Traveling, speaking foreign languages, exploring different cultures, tasting authentic local food, participating in local cultural events defines me as person and most certainly as an artist.

Most of your works are small. Why?

Yes, intentionally so. I think it’s easier for the large-scale paintings to make an impression. If an artwork is large, it’s likely to attract attention by its mere size. But if an artwork is small, the focus automatically shifts towards its content and the story it tells. I find that more intriguing.

There’s also this idea of how much I want to give of myself through my paintings. The larger the size, the more exposed I’d feel. That is not to say that I won’t ever paint on a large scale. In fact, I have begun working on larger pieces and I love it. I’ve found the process laborious, yet far more liberating.

Can you describe your painting as well as creative process?

I spend a significant amount of time absorbing my surroundings before picking up the painting brush. I sort of try to mentally stop the time and focus on the moment - watching the shapes left by the waves ebbing and flowing on Siesta Key or variations of green when hiking the hills of the Ligurian coast of Italy.

My current paintings are made using thin layers of ink and watered-down acrylic pigments on raw or lightly primed canvas. This style of painting that I’ve developed over time delivers the natural, organic effect that I like so much. My paintings are light, yet there’s depth.

Although certain aspects of my painting style are intentional, most of it is purely intuitive. Sometimes I make small preparatory studies to guide my choices in color combinations, but most of the time my paintings start by the intuitive idea of what a landscape looks and feels like to me.

What I like the most about the process is the ability to travel to a different world - this world is free of thoughts. Don’t’ get me wrong - I do like my thoughts. I don’t paint to escape them. But when I paint, I get to be in the world where thoughts do not exist, and I believe it to be the world where creativity lives.

When do you know that an artwork is finished?

First of all, it needs to be well balanced composition-wise. Secondly, it needs to look light with the least number of layers, yet with enough interesting elements. When the artwork gets to look too busy, too textured or too painterly, it gets side-lined. Finally, it has to feel exciting to me.

What does your art aim to say?

It aims to make us feel at peace. Peace of mind, peace of body, peace in the world. Just peace.

What is art to you?

Art to me is a way of expression and each of us has a unique way of doing it. To me, art doesn’t need to be complex. There’s beauty in simplicity. I want my art to look light and easy, as I want my life to be, even when it’s not.

What does the future hold?

I’ve been cautiously taking small steps. I am ready now to take a big one.