Maria Dimanshtein
Niles, Illinois
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Favorite cartoon character: Cheburashka (I grew up watching Russian cartoons)
Day job: Graphic designer
Collect anything: Earrings. I have one for every outfit!
Stolen artwork of choice: One of the abstracts by Gerhard Richter, maybe "November" or one of the "Ice" pieces.
Favorite color: Right now it's purple, but I also love teal and hot pink.
Breakfast of choice: Homemade vanilla yogurt banana mango smoothie (my own recipe)
Currently reading: "Committed" by Elizabeth Gilbert and "The Wisdom of The Enneagram", the book about 9 personality types.
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Being an artist is a way of noticing and experiencing life. I am most inspired in the moments of high awareness—that is when my perception of life becomes the most acute and life appears as if viewed though a magnifying glass. That “magnifying glass” is what lets me find aspects that are normally hidden from the naked eye of perception. In my work process, whatever the media, I pursue the unexpected. Without a concrete agenda in mind, I start my process with an identified inspiration, for example a deep indigo color of a wet asphalt road intensified by a rim of bright greenery after a thunderstorm. In this case, it is the combination of colors that inspires me and becomes a departure point. I want to see where the process will take me and what shapes will appear. Often in my pieces, identifiable elements will be placed in abstract settings. This creates an experience of the familiar and the unknown at the same time—an effect that invites you to a new emotional experience. You are drawn into the image by the elements that you recognize, which helps you to experience a different, invented, and imagined space. I work in various media such as oil and acrylic painting, print making, ink painting, and mixed media. I received a traditional art education from Riga School of Art (located in Latvia, where I was born and raised) and earned a BA in Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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