Artist Biography

I lived in four different countries before the age of nine — Russia, Israel, Germany and the U.S. I had no idea whether I had any talents while growing up because my parents divorced and they where both busy learning new languages and finding jobs. When I was 19 years old I said to a friend who was taking art classes that if I could paint I would do it nonstop. So my friend asked me to go with her to an evening art class at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. The teacher at this figure drawing class would not allow me to stay, no matter how I resisted, unless I took a charcoal and gave it a try. She made her rounds around the class and stopped by my drawing, which I thought was horrid, and asked “are you sure you never did this before”? I responded “no never” and she said “you have something.” I was very shy and very insecure but her words made me feel special. I do not remember her name but I have kept that memory close to my heart. Life took me in other directions and it was not until I gave birth to my triplets, that my artistic abilities started to come out. My biological father’s family were all musicians and my step-dad was an accessory/handbag designer so I grew up around creative people. It was in trying to keep three kids busy at the same time that I re-discovered art. The more I got interested in creating art, the more I realized that for me art was a life journey. I realized that art encompasses the totality of human experience. In art there exists philosophy, spirituality, religion, history, love and hate. An artist reflects what she/he has seen, felt, dreamt, experienced, envisioned. As a young immigrant moving through different countries and cultures I was unable to communicate with others until I would learn the local language, which led to a lot of insecurities but also strengthened my methods of observation. The tech revolution, social media, the global political climate, as well as the over abundance of available information, have infiltrated my entire being and so I explore these themes in my work from the stand point of human evolution (or lack thereof…). Art has enabled me to take a closer look at myself and the world.