" Art is my life, and life is a magical journey. I have been always surrounded by the fascinating atmosphere of the creative life, ever since I was born in 1983, Moscow, in a family of artists. My mother is the illustrator of the children's books, father is a designer, my grandfather was the master of the pastel paintings and my grandmother created the make-up for the leading opera singers of the Bolshoi Theatre, (Moscow ) which atmosphere enchanted me from the early childhood. At the age of 3 I was taken to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and was astonished with the magic power of the timeless masterpieces. With delight I walked through that temple of Art as a member of the Young Art Lover's Studio existing in the museum. I drew from early childhood and I continued my training in the Children's Art School. Still, the most influential and important period in discovering my artistic potential happened to be the 4 years spent in the Moscow State Academical Art College, theatre ( scenography ) department .

While learning to apprehend the rules of the classical painting school, drawing and composition, I was eager to expand my artistic vision, stretch my creative wings and feel the spirit of the gripping process on
working on the plays of all times, from Shakespeare to Antonen Arto with his most innovative and surrealistic philosophy of theatre. Together with the aspiration of acquiring the skill of traditional realistic school, which I consider to be important basic for my creative works - it was a personal journey within my inner worlds and through the timeless themes that turned to be close to my heart. The one year study at the Soros Foundation for contemporary Arts gave me a breathtaking chance of looking at the current situation of the world art scene and an opportunity of expressing myself in collaborative projects - creating installations, objects, performances and photos.

I now study at the first state school of cinematography in the world (VGIK, art department) is also a significant step for my artistic development, as now it seems like I have even more freedom, awareness and passion for self perfection in arts. I enjoy acquiring professionalism, but also keep the heart open for the sincere perception, as one of the most thrilling thing of this magic journey is the constant changing and discoveries that influence both my life and art. "

" I am convinced that life is the language of symbols, and I also wish my works to "tell" the story with the language of signs, metaphors, images and symbols. From the Egypt's times, art had a sacramental meaning ;each work of art reflected the world's essence, as it was understood in that period of history. Art passed the times when it was subordinated to canons, reflected the man's life on earth through religious world outlook, till the times when it became free from anything and turned into very personal self expression and constant experiment, involving in collaboration all the aspects of our life. Perhaps, now it's hard to discover something that didn't exist earlier, still, I noticed that truly sincere movements of the human soul are timeless and continue to thrill our heart wherever we are at the moment. The inner spirit and a luminous soul are somehow the link between heaven and earth and each journey of self-discovery, realization of our dreams is a celebration of the miracle of life. The beauty of the surrounding world, works of art of all the times, and little wonders that happen each day in the life of each of us delight me and fill with me inspiration. My artworks are the language I talk with the universe and the reflection of constant movement, states of transition and expression of my inner perception of my way and the surrounding reality... Although as it was said by Dali , "the reality is surrealistic, and its existence itself is the most surrealistic mystery of all ... For most of my works I was also inspired by the intellectual-philosophical literature that shows the union of everyday reality with mystery or flight of the human's imagination . I am enchanted by themes that are concerned to some spiritual reality – where real and unreal are mixed together for reflection of the unsteady and contradictory validity, where visibility and essence can't be connected. As every second of our life is a door into never-ending potential possibilities - each of my works is an attempt to trace the collision of an accidental and regularity, when unpredictable events burst in the measured blood of life and change it forever, where a few worlds are visible one through another - and this shows us the universe of subtle illusions, sliding reality, metamorphoses, paradoxes. Finally, now always we are able to regard the moment of our life as a puzzle piece that was supposed to be on this exactly place long beforehand. Whenever I deal with the canvas, I deal with the stage where the curtain is opened to take a viewer into the magic adventure that mainly happens in his mind. I am striving towards the inner consistence of the work, but art for me is as well a game of unpredictable and a way to reflect my admiration for the enchantment of living a life. My works are sort of metaphoric embodiment of my perception of life - a way full of miracles, spiritual discoveries and secrets of destiny. "

Dasha Balashova