From a young age, I have always been fascinated by the diversity of perspective in cultures outside of the US. Traveling is one of the best ways to learn about this wide range of perspectives and use them to help yourself and your community. As a young artist, my vision is to travel and upon my return unite my community. I believe that I can be the seed of a more interconnected and wholistic society in the United States. Both of my parents are immigrants; my mom is from the Soviet Union and my dad is British. Russian was my first language. Growing up in New York City in a home where we all spoke Russian to each other taught me to cherish cultural differences across societies. When I was fourteen, I received a scholarship to live in the south of Spain in a town an hour and a half from Valencia at a small tennis academy. There, I learned to speak Spanish and I witnessed a culture that I had never seen before. People lived differently and interacted differently. The politics and the art were different. I was seeing everything with fresh eyes and learning an entire new way of being. The experience taught me that adapting to new customs uncovers a new side of yourself because it forces you to question your beliefs. Coming home with my new understanding, I felt inspired to create art. I began to share the story of my experiences through my art and witness the effect that it had on people. I felt that because I had the opportunity to witness a new way of life, now I was bringing people something to help connect and understand each other. As I have grown older I have had the time to develop my vision for the way in which I want to effect the external world through my artwork. I firmly believe that art created with the intention of resolving internal, personal conflicts, helps resolve external, social, and political issues because people can look at the art work and feel understood. In the United States there is a political power imbalance which reflects the people’s individual differences. Because of this, psychologically, Americans have an outlook where they frequently view strangers with disdain, rejection, or judgement. I remember that when I lived in Spain one of my main observations was that strangers were significantly more welcoming towards each other. By immersing myself in new cultures and studying their ways of creating a close knit sense of community, I will return to the US with an ability to unite people. My vision is to use the medium of visual art to express personal struggles that people can all relate to and through them they can come together. This will bring people a sense of interconnectedness. After learning from communities and cultures across the world I will bring people together through art and the feeling of common understanding.

The famous Algerian-born French author and philosopher Albert Campus once said, “The only way to exist in an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” To me, this quote represents the essence of freedom creative expression. Finding my own freedom of creative expression means transcending the social boundaries that obstruct my sense of self. In pursuit of my own freedom of creative expression, I am constantly uncovering behaviors that do not serve me and block my view of truth or of the light within. The connection between the internal workings of the mind and their tangible external manifestation is a creative spark of harmony, understanding, and most importantly connection. This creative spark is what connects all of the most influential artists throughout history and it is the core of interpersonal connectedness. The spark is magical and can transcend social stigmas and stereotypes. The beauty of an artist’s freedom of creative expression is that through it, they can break social boundaries. To me finding my creative expression means relishing the freedom found within the spaces in between and outside of society’s rigid fragments and divisions.