It has been some time since I have finished and sent off “The Brain Project” to Toronto. I typically don’t create art under deadlines, but “The Brain Project” had to be completed in under 2 months. Several weeks after shipping out the brain sculpture I created, I found out that thanks to the coronavirus, the... Continue Reading →
Lost and found – on passions and the sense of personal identity
I have been trying to think back to the first time I felt prompted to create art. While definitely not proportional to the number of years, my life seems to be split into 2 parts - before and after moving from Russia to the United States. I believe I became more serious about creating art... Continue Reading →
How can art help us deal with stress, get through COVID-19 and come out on the other side?
The Corona Virus pandemic has upended our lives. We were already facing global climate change and increases in the number of nuclear weapons. Now this virus, and others that may follow. Most of us who are fortunate enough to be artists don’t usually need to confront such realities. We survived 9/11 and Sandy. We have... Continue Reading →
“Fragile Memory”, 2019
After I created "Fragile Memory" in the end of 2019, it quickly became one of my favorite pieces. Yet I forgot to post its story on the blog - how silly of me! "Fragile Memory" is based on an image of the hippocampus – the part of the brain that is responsible for forming new... Continue Reading →
Squirrel brooch improv
Several months ago, I created a squirrel brooch, which I then neglected to photograph for quite some time. Initially, I was planning to offer it by itself in my Etsy Shop, but after seeing it on my desk for so long, a new idea crossed my mind. I wondered if it can serve more than... Continue Reading →
What inspires my art
It may come off as an unexpected way of starting an artist blog post, but truth be told, art mostly helps me stay sane as a mother. This is one of the many reasons I brought it back into my life after letting it fall by the wayside for more than a decade. It helps... Continue Reading →
Using SciArt to battle stress and find hope
This blog post was originally published on Lifeology on 5/10/20. Art has at least seven different functions, according to Alain de Botton and John Armstrong’s “Art as Therapy”: 1) Remembering, 2) Hope, 3) Sorrow, 4) Rebalancing, 5) Self-Understanding, 6) Growth, and 7) Appreciation. Art helps us to remember the past, hope for something better and process our feelings. Last year, before hearing about... Continue Reading →
The “Hope” series is featured in the Spring 2020 edition of GASHER Journal
I am honored that GASHER Journal has accepted my "Hope" series to their Spring 2020 edition. Here is the summary of my featured works. All of them are available for sale here. About the Artwork: Grief is a strong emotional response to a crisis and can come in many forms. It may come from losing... Continue Reading →
Choosing art, science or both
My initial art was centered around trauma at the cellular level. Several years later, this work came to represent a painful personal experience.
Evolution of 3-dimensional beadwork: Lessons learned – Part II
This post is the continuation of Part I of my exploration of my methods development. If you have missed it, I recommend you start here. Moving forward, in "Tortured", "Abyss", "Hope", "The Void" and "Attraction" I started building much larger 3-dimensional structures. It was quite challenging to make them stay up and not lose their... Continue Reading →
