I am a self-taught artist working mainly with oils and acrylics on wood and canvas. Despite having a degree in economics and working in IT, my passion has always been art. In my childhood I spent hours doodling away. Time went by unnoticed once I had a pencil or a brush in my hand.

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Travel is another passion of mine and a source of ideas for my art. That’s also something that was part of my life from an early age. I spent my childhood between Ukraine and Belarus. Every year I’d ride the train from urban Minsk to my grandparent’s house in a small village in Ukraine for the summer. Watching green and rainy Belarusian landscapes transform into sunny sunflower fields of Ukraine is one of my favorite memories. I think that’s when I got the “travel bug.”

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I love discovering new places, roaming streets of foreign cities, hiking into the wilderness, riding my bike on less traveled rural roads. For me, it’s a treasure hunt, and my treasures are a rusty truck by the side of the road overgrown with greenery, ruins of an abandoned house, an oddly shaped tree in a foggy sunrise, an old discarded bicycle with broken spokes, and colorful fall foliage. These are the roots of my inspiration … my “gems.”

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When I don’t get to travel the traditional way, I do it in my mind with the help of literature. I favor the dark tales of Nikolai Gogol and the Brothers Grimm, the surreal world of Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita,” and, of course, the irresistible horrors of Stephen King. Their influence sometimes shows up in my work as just a twinge of unease, a mystery, and a feeling of an untold story behind the scene.