Check out Maria Menshikova’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Menshikova.

Maria, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’m a Russian artist based in Los Angeles. Self-thought, I turned my drawing passion into illustrator/creative career. I’ve worked and lived in Moscow for six years, then Amsterdam for a couple of years and moved to LA in 2018.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I create semi-realistic, surreal paintings exploring life itself through my visual narratives. I develop worlds and play with aesthetics, surfing in between different styles which are all interconnected. I believe there’s no perfection, and that all beautiful things are beautiful because they have unique flaws to them.

Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
There are problems like self-misunderstanding and lack of self-reflection. In times of informational pollution, it’s hard to keep just one thought and treat it properly. It leads to the absence of own ideas, blurry minds and lack self-esteem, or even worse, inability to assess their own level and place on the current stage or market. The quality filter is nowadays super vague: you can make whatever you want and upload it online without even blinking. This is very helpful, but we shouldn’t forget to evaluate, we must be our own teachers and critics, in order to grow stronger and develop distinctive, high-quality work.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My art can be found on the internet. I use platforms such as Behance, Instagram, Twitter, etc. to share my work. I participate shows all over the world. Planning to start selling prints soon, and do other offline publications. So stay tuned!