Dolphin Drawing

Born in the beautiful Soviet city of Odessa, Anita Zotkina started her art career at a very young age. When she we just three years old, she began to draw people and animals whenever she had a chance, and soon learned to create highly intricate images. She spent a lot of time outdoors in nature, observing animals and birds, plants and insects, and finding life everywhere. All of this got reflected in her art. At age 10, Anita was accepted into Odessa’s Grekov Art School, one of the most prestigious art schools in Ukraine, but she dropped out after her first year, feeling stifled by the lack of creative freedom. Art was the one area in her life where she refused to be pressured. Nevertheless, she continued to paint on her own. Due to her mother’s untreated mental illness, Anita’s teenaged years were rough. She regularly witnessed violence, poverty, alcoholism and abuse. She had her son at the age of 17 and moved away from her dysfunctional family. She then attended Odessa State University where she earned her BA in Economics. In the wake of the Soviet collapse, as so many struggled to make ends meet, Anita realized that she could use her art to make a living. This realization marked the beginning of her career as a professional artist. Most of her paintings between 1991 and 1998 depicted landscapes, folk scenes, and flowers, reflecting the demand of her customers. Anita immigrated to New England in 1998 and soon discovered that she could no longer make a living with her art. She decided to pursue a job that could support her and her son, and work on her art when she had time off. This strategy seemed to work. She was free again to paint whatever she wanted. Most of her work between 1999-2008 was a reflection on how she felt as a woman and her role in this world. After the financial crisis of 2008, Anita started to question the world system and its fairness. Her art conveyed her restlessness as she searched for a mission, aliens, God - anything that could explain the apparent lack of harmony. She finally came to the realization of her childhood traumas, and a need to heal them. Her work during this time reflected the ups and downs of the healing process, as she moved through it. Recently she has stopped questioning the world. She knows and accepts that there are limits to her understanding of her existence. Her latest works are much calmer, focusing on a feeling of contentment and a simpler way of living.