Hi! I am Anastasiia! Currently, I am living in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada, with my family. Before coming here, we lived in Guatemala, and I am originally from Russia.
I am a self-taught artist and I always felt charmed and involved in art matters – as a teacher, volunteer or parent.
The selection of my subject matter, either living creatures, natural or imaginative landscapes & scenes, is guided by my routine experiences and emotions, nurtured by continuous resettlement and discovering new places and cultures. Thus, I am both a nature and urban-life-inspired artist.
I use various materials and tools in my creative process, always trusting the unfettered hand of art. Sometimes, I use only one medium in an artwork; occasionally, it involves a combination of several. I often hear from artists that many find themselves constantly switching ideas, materials, or tools. Personally, I discovered my own secret and the fundament of such variability, which I researched and explained in my graduate project “An Identity as Yet Unfixed – becoming an Artist Despite and Through Cultural Changes.”
My work is a vivid exploration of the surroundings through watercolours, coloured pencils, ink, and more, which result in a primarily abstract form enhanced with vivid strokes and fine lines. Like a rhizome, an artist is constantly becoming as a multiplicity of people and places – or mediums and ideas. So am I, moving from the brightness of watercolours to the strict shapes and fluid patterns. And after that, to something else…
Anastasiia Mansiuk 