Artist Statement

   I was born in a historical town Nizhny Novgorod in Russia in 1995. My mother raised me on her own after my father died. She always motivated me to look for purpose. I was always making art, but didn’t pursue it until moving to China in 2018. I was introduced to oil paint by my husband in 2020. After a while, my husband and I decided to go to the states to study in Tennessee, USA. Since childhood I’ve been highly interested in realism. My main focus is creating a hyper-realistic image of something unimaginable. I found the best technique that suited my style of painting. It takes many months to complete one painting. I prefer to paint on gesso board because it gives me room to work on the details as much as necessary, preferably smaller than 70 inches by the long side, the smallest panel is 6 by 3 inches and the biggest is 60 by 40 inches, including custom-made frames. Most of my works involve different characters played by my family and friends. They serve me as models for my portraits. After I decided to explore traditions of different ethnic groups in Africa and Russia, including various cultural beliefs of Slavic tribes in central Russia and Mali empire in West Africa, I found out that Africa is the crater of many civilizations, it is highly overlooked and worth digging into. It brought Christianity and Islam together, similar to Russia, my mother’s family is Muslim, but my father’s parents are Christians. It explains why Russia has many traditions and legends that could be similar to Africa’s. And I am going to tell the stories in a new way. To put it simply, it is a blend of two backgrounds. Literally and figuratively. Because cultures are usually shared, culture knows no boundaries. Stories travel across continents and different ethnicities. It can be found where you least expect it. I genuinely want to make my viewers question familiar environments and reality. At the same time, I want them to realize that there is a lot that we don’t know about our world. What can be perceived as a historical fact or mythology is a question that every historian asks. Often dismissed because of lack of evidence. However, many artists are always fascinated by things that can’t be explained.