Butterfly Painting

I think it matters that I was born and raised in the USSR in Russia, and lived my entire adult life together with my country. It certainly influenced my personality and my work. All my childhood was spent at the library (because there were interesting books there), on the streets where I did parkour and other dangerous activities and in nature, in the forest and in the mountains in the Far North. There I felt for the first time my connection with the natural world and with the world of art. I can also say about myself that a long time ago I have been an inveterate inhabitant of a metropolis, Moscow has been my city for a very long time. I currently live and work in San Francisco. I love this city, it awakens creative energy and joy in me. I am interested and inspired by people, and my spiritual food is all kinds of art, especially fine art and the art of cinema. Artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Egon Schiele, Odilon Redon, Henry Matisse, Francis Picabia, Paul Klee, Joan Miro and Georgia O’Keeffe have influenced my work. At the moment I prefer to work with oil, it gives more possibilities to work with color, but I try other materials as well. I am very fickle in everything that concerns creativity, I am constantly carried away by different ideas, but then I always come back and continue my series. This is probably why I am close to an artist like Francis Picabia, who did not recognize the framework in his work and never limited himself. I like fantasy images and ideas, improvisation, and I always use this in my work. My paintings are about childhood memories and impressions, music, my dreams and travels to other worlds. I often meditate before work and never know what my painting will be. I just let it happen. My creative energy is always aimed at transforming everyday life and often includes images of bizarre fantastic creatures. Often I start work on a painting spontaneously, go up to the canvas and immediately start painting. I just create my dream, my world and I hope that my paintings leave space for imagination and everyone will find in them something close to themselves. Through my work, I would like to share my optimism, love of life and the warmth of my soul with everyone. I studied in San Francisco at the Academy of Art University, and also with wonderful significant masters in San Francisco, Russia and Spain.