The roots of my life and work are steeped in Russian art and culture. I was born in Leningrad, came of age in a family of artists and academics, and emigrated in 1977. That inheritance, the literature, the visual culture, the particular intensity of that world, has never left me.
My major influences are Mark Rothko, Wassily Kandinsky, and Marc Chagall. Fields of color, in one form or another. My heart leaps when I see their work and I think: how do I do that. My earlier work had a whiff of Russian Constructivism — purely unconsciously. I was thrilled when it was pointed out to me.
I work across painting, works on paper, sculpture, and jewelry. My practice is intuitive and process-driven. Color, texture, flow. The movement of pencil on paper, brush on canvas, line and shape finding their way across a surface. The excitement of watching hot metal bend under an acetylene torch, two pieces joined, a sculpture emerging. It is about discovery — of potential, of what the work wants to be. I build it stroke by stroke, color by color, shape by shape, and follow where it leads.
My paintings hang unframed, suspended from a top bar like a tapestry. This is deliberate. The work has weight and presence without the intervention of a frame.
I earned my BFA at Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus, where I studied with sculptor Jerome Zimmerman, and painters Bob Yasuda and Stan Brodsky — working artists who gave me rigor and room in equal measure.
I have lived and worked for many years in the quiet of the San Francisco Bay Area, where I continue my practice.