My Roots.

My roots are in the West Belarus, former Poland, then in 1936 -Belorussian Soviet Republic, now back to somewhat independence-Belarus. Even genetic search showed me 50% from ancient Lida, my mom’s side from a village by this town, 50% from Pinks, where is all my father’s side ancestry.

Even though I lived there only one year after birth and one year with my grandparents in 1971, I always felt the deepest connection with that land, with the wheat, flex and rye fields, woodland with wild berries and mushrooms. With those people, calm, nonjudgmental, kind and loving, and hard workers.

Thirty three years I lived in Siberia, four of them in the wild woodland.

No matter what geography my roots are I am always in the wild meadows. Always. That where my roots are.

The ART of Living with Joy.

The concept and then my life philosophy of “The ART of Living with JOY” came as the result of my life search in the pursue of happiness. I still (luckily!) have my diary that I started at the age of 16, upon entering University, where I started to write all the wisdom from the books I read.

Everything connected with the notion of happiness said by the characters or coming directly from the authors from different countries I noted in my diary in different colors. I re-read these quotes thousands of times, thinking about what they actually meant. The characters lives in different times, from Socrates, Cleopatra, Pluto, Shakespeare, Saint-Exupery, Charles Dickens to classic Russian.

By the age of early thirty I had come to my personal vision of how to be happy, what does it mean “happiness” to me. To this day, with early morning cup of tea, usually outside, in our wild woodland weather permit, I continue to define my feeling of happiness.

As I changed my path yet again at the age of 52, devoting my life to the arts, I started to share my philosophy during my art classes. As word spread in our community my classes were filled with amazing people of all ages who wanted to learn the arts and the psychology of happiness based on my story.

I share my concept in my Facebook posts, website blog, art classes, public presentations, magazine articles, art depictions and while meeting people during my exhibitions.

My Work.

I have three distinct stages of my professional life.

First, from the age of 21,right after fulfilling my childhood dream to get degree in languages (Russian, English, German, Latin), until 35, I was a teacher of English and art in Siberian schools.

Second, from 35 (arrival to the USA) until 52- adoption social worker, manager, then director of Eastern European Adoption at the local adoption agency Adoption Associates, Inc. in Jenison, Michigan.

Third, from 52 until today (my plan- until my last breath)- I am a full time artist, art educator, coach and public speaker on my subject matter - ”The ART of Living with JOY”, combining all my knowledge of human psychology with art.

Born to be Wild & Free

Do you think this is who you are, “wild & free”? In a good way of course! Natural way- wild as wild flowers!

You know what are the qualities of wild flowers? From my childhood, as we went to the Siberian woodland’s meadow, my mom taught me about them, when to harvest, how to protect, how to dry and how to make teas from them.

Wild means natural, from nature not yet distorted by civilization.

Wild is living in the state of nature.

Being authentic and true to who you are is being wild.

This is how I feel: I am one of them, wild flowers, trees and plants of wild woodlands, where I used to live in Siberia.

Useful to people. To heal them.

To bring simple elegant beauty.

Through all possible for me forms of ART - teachings, conversations, writings, paintings, sewing, tea drinking, hosting, public speaking, gardening, relationships, family growing- these are all are forms of art.

My Sacrifice.

I don’t believe in existence of sacrifices. Every new situations, traumas, losses bring us to the deeper understanding of life, human nature and ability to see opportunity in every situation.

Similarly, I do not believe in the concept of difficulties and did not allow my staff to use this word in the office.

My significant looses of everything familiar in Russia and Belarus, not being able to see my relatives and thus Motherland, Belarus, for 30 years, did not hear or use my native language and other “problems” related to immigration I do NOT consider sacrifices.

I made my choice at the age 35 after a thorough evaluation of the Russian history. That year, 1995, I came to my personal opinion that within next 50 years there would not be any movements toward lawful and democratic society. Well, look what is going on in Russia today, almost 30 years from the day I made that realization.

Well, for a long time, in fact since my early teenage life, I trust my critical thinking. This simplifies my decision making process in my daily life and living my life without guilts. And I always share how to trust YOUR critical thinking, both conscious and unconscious.

I am One of Them.

It is not just my strong belief, it is a way of living, seeing surrounding world and then depicting it in impressionistic manner in my art.

Wildflowers represent who I am. Since childhood, I spent lots of time by myself in the wilds of Siberian forests and meadows and Belarus grain fields.

When I was spending hours in nature by myself as a child and then teenager, I clearly remember those hours of going through the high flowers or grain plants trying to carve my way through the dense growth. I could not see my way- it was scary, but exhilarating when I was able to find the way out of the fields! By myself! I overcame fears to be lost and never being found in huge fields by the village. I experienced immense sense of happiness, satisfaction and being proud of myself!

I became comfortable to be lost among them, beautiful tiny bunches of white daisies, incredible periwinkle cornflowers tightly intertwined in hugs and support to survive among strong corn or other grains. And incredible tiny birds singing in most gorgeous open big skies!

It was magical. I connected with all the wild flowers immensely and felt that my wild character is just as they are: tall, slim, gentle and yet very strong and beautiful.

I AM one of them.

My Life.

I am lucky not to be spoiled, to be by myself from early age, being responsible for my brother, for the house that needs to be warmed with the food, with no running water, with the outhouse in the woods- and that all from 6 to ten years of age, during the most crucial times when human’s character formulates. All of those thing could be described as "hardship. But not by me! I felt incredible sense of happiness and independence there! Juts lake any of the children on that military base, i did not have any toys. Sticks, moss, pine cones, dried grasses- were our materials to build and create.

I was lucky that y parents were busy with their professional life and let me grow independently.

Be Inspired. Learn.

Yes, I was lucky to live in raw Siberia, village in Belarus, rather cultured at that time Moscow, bright and sunny and very exotic Cairo- all these during my first ten years of life. My curiosity was spackled and never stopped.

Thus, I have accumulated so much that now I can’t stop exploring the human nature. I want to share because there are so many ways to feel true JOY. Without going on a crise or Disney Land. Without spending thousands dollars. Without false healing by going shopping.

I want to elevate your spirit by connecting with nature and helping you to become creative.

I want to share how to recover that fabulous free inner spirit that you have lost long ago while mending yourself to please all the surrounding adults from your parents, teachers, bosses, and perhaps spouses. Your journey is complex. Just like everyone’s else.

Join my tribe, sing up for my newsletter, read my blog, bring your friends and let’s start our HONEST conversations.

Believe me, it is not THAT hard. It is possible to believe in yourself, to recover your self esteem (you had it when you were a baby!), to continue learning new skills, a who you are as human being in order to better understand your reactions and your feelings.

Mostly all the “tricks” and “secrets” I share are quite common sense things, or the knowledge that you heard but never connected the dots.

It is not fast. The learning process of who you are is never ending. That’s why it is so rewarding to discover your new strength and so called “weaknesses” and gain the understanding on how to use them to your advantage to do good in this life!

Lets do it together, friend!

It’s an awesome journey!

Thank you for spending time with me and walking through woodland and and flowers in my art gallery here on this site!

May you be joyful and free.