It is nothing new to have my art in far-flung parts of the world. Since I trained as a monumental artist in one of Russia’s (then the Soviet Union) most prestigious faculties, the Monumental Art Faculty of Mukhina Institute, in St. Petersburg, there was no getting around it. The profession of monumentalist, by definition, demanded a certain amount of travel.

Since monumentalists as they existed in the Soviet Union are not well known in North America, I will take a minute to outline this sector of the arts. The monumentalist is like an artist who is trained in aspects of design, architecture and applied arts. The idea being that the monumentalist would take any given interior or exterior space and design and complete a work of art that would be appropriate for the space, whether it be a mosaic, mural, glass, cement or other medium. (Sculpture was a separate discipline.)

This can be quite different here in North America, where the breakdown of responsibilities can be quite different, with the architect or, quite possibly, the project sponsor reserving a lion’s share of the decision making for themselves.

Anyway, to even be considered for entrance into this faculty, you already had to be a fully accomplished artist. As a woman, it was even harder to get one of the 8 available spots in a given year, competing against hundreds of working artists from throughout the entire Soviet Union! I was very fortunate to be admitted the second year I applied and to study under some great Soviet masters of visual art while there… but that’s another story which I also hope to tell some day.

After completing five hugely rewarding and demanding years at Mukhina in St. Petersburg, I had to travel to find work. This was during the years of Perestroika (re-structuring) in the Soviet Union, so there was much instability, budgets would often be cut unexpectedly and most available positions were already filled with senior artists.

The only real job openings were in Siberia. I had a couple of invitations to go out there but finally found a provisional posting in Kaliningrad, a beautiful city on the Baltic Sea (prior to WW2 the German city of Konigsburg). I completed or participated in numerous projects there and was also privileged to complete several projects at Pyatigorsk, a larger city in the Russian Caucases, as well as back home in St. Petersburg and other smaller centers.

Now, my work is traveling around the world almost faster than I can keep track.

South Africa, Colombia, Iceland, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia… the list goes on and on. Check back often – I will be showing another painting, along with the town or city it was shipped to every single day.

It is very possible… that I may never run out of images to post!

-Tatiana Iliina, Montreal