Thematic Pieces.

Experimenting with portraits and self-portraits, 2025.

Through this piece, I explored how loss and happiness can coexist. While previous pieces focused more on the contrast between hopeful idealism and tragedy, through this piece I explored how I could show both loss and happiness without visually separating them. I wanted to capture this idea by portraying a soft shift from dark to light from the candle’s luminosity.

The candle represents happiness from family and remembrance, as do the warm colors and flowers. The dark background represents loss, but the fade from warm to dark shows how happiness and sadness can coexist. I faded the light of the candle out into the dark background to show happiness and light even in the face of tragedy.

Illustration of family history, 2025.

I began this piece by wanting to explore how I could portray both joy and tragedy.

I was inspired by my childhood memories of hearing my great-grandmother tell me amusing or joyous memories of my family history in Russia, and having a very idealistic view of my family’s past. However, as I’ve matured, I’ve discovered the more tragic parts of my family’s past. Through this illustration, I explored how I could visually portray both childhood idealism and tragic reality, as well as the contrast between them. I used darker and more monotone colors for the storm cloud behind my grandmother that represents hidden sad memories, and contrasted that with the bright colors used in the memories that my grandmother told me and that I imagined. It’s meant to show my idealistic childhood perspective, but the piece also represents my grandmother and family’s resilience and strength as her figure in the piece “holds back” and helps visually separate the storm cloud from the child.

Experimenting with portraits, 2025.

This piece explores a lack of meaning and an inability to find how the various aspects of life fit together. I aimed to show a potential cause of sadness and confusion - namely, a lack of purpose and meaning in life. I chose graphite pencils for a monotone piece to represent the sorrow, and slightly blended ghostly figures in the back into the background to show life “blurring” together because of no purpose. It’s meant to show how the subject feels like life is meaningless, as the figures in the background represent him in different scenarios, and he can’t make sense of his life experiences. The subject is confused, as he can’t make sense of life because of his lack of meaning.

Mouse and Elf. Colored pencil on paper, 2021. An early narrative work exploring scale, observation, and imagined worlds, using fantasy imagery to examine perspective and quiet interaction.

Mouse and Elf. Colored pencil on paper, 2021. An early narrative work exploring scale, observation, and imagined worlds, using fantasy imagery to examine perspective and quiet interaction.

Horseshoe. Colored pencil on paper, 2021. A study of texture, form, and symbolism, focusing on luck and protection through close observation of an everyday object.

Horseshoe. Colored pencil on paper, 2021. A study of texture, form, and symbolism, focusing on luck and protection through close observation of an everyday object.

Illustrations.

  • The Frog's Fairytale. 2018.

  • Experiment Aqua. 2020.

  • Charlotte's Web. 2019.

  • Contained, not Protected. 2018.

Travel Zine.

  • Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

  • Blue Grotto, Malta

  • Amsterdam, Netherlands

  • Stockholm, Sweden

  • Aukland, New Zealand

  • Taipei, Taiwan

  • Sydney, Australia

  • Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

  • Yosemite National Park, USA

  • Rome, Italy

  • Verdon Gorge, France

  • Prague, Czech Republic

  • Helsinki, Finland

  • Nashville, USA

  • Phuket, Thailand

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Experimentation Pieces