Alina Musiiko

I have been drawing since I was six or seven years old. As a child, drawing and books were my favorite things, and drawing became one of my first ways of expressing feelings that I could not always put into words.

At first, I simply loved copying images that inspired me and learning through observation. Later, I attended an art school and dreamed of entering an art academy, but I left one year before graduating while studying at a demanding physics and mathematics-focused school. My parents encouraged me to choose a more practical profession, believing that an artist’s life would be financially difficult.

For many years, I followed paths that seemed more sensible than creative. I studied environmental science at university and later trained as a dental technician, a profession that allowed me to work with my hands and create precise forms. I also spent eight years in network marketing, developing experience in communication, sales, recruitment, team training, event organization and public speaking. These experiences shaped me deeply and taught me a great deal about people, communication and myself.

Yet throughout all those years, the desire to create never disappeared.

A few years ago, I returned to painting. What began as a pe...

Zaporizhzhia Medical College,
Major: Dental Technician
Ukraine, 2012–2014.