ARTIST STATEMENT

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I am a single mother and an artist.

I am raising two children—six and nine—on a planet that teaches them to be selfish to survive, to perform instead of feel, to build avatars instead of communities.

And I refuse to let that be their future.

I grew up in the USSR.

We didn’t have much, but we had each other—kids ran in the streets, made up songs, shared bruises and secrets in the dirt. Now I watch a generation raised by tablets, war games, and algorithmic addiction.

We traded playgrounds for screens, friendship for competition, imagination for consumption.

This isn’t evolution. It’s erasure.

I make art to expose the systems that are stealing childhood in plain sight.

Capitalism, war, organized religion, militarized education—these are not “structures.”

They are machines that break children down into obedient units.

I’ve seen what happens when kids are taught to swallow their grief, to pray away their rage, to kill before they even understand death.

I’ve seen innocence marketed, weaponized, devoured.

I won’t be silent.

As a mother, my body already carried the weight.

As an artist, my work refuses to look away.

Art is not a luxury.

It is a weapon.

It is memory.

It is rebellion.

I create for the child left behind.

The one tossed over the fence.

The one who can’t speak but still hears everything.

This is not just about art.

This is about survival.

And I am here to fight for it.