Tatyana was born in the former Soviet Union where as a child she was fully immersed in music. At the age of 17 she came to the United States and spent a year at Emma Willard School; this was when she first started exploring color and texture through dyeing yarn and weaving and delving into shape and line through her jewelry work in 1998.

As an undergraduate at Queens University of Charlotte, Tatyana studied Studio Arts. She received an Outstanding Art Student award in 2000 and used her scholarship to study at Florence Academy of Art in the summer of 2001. At the academy, Tatyana concentrated on figure drawing in the Academic Method under instruction from Dana Levin. While at Queens, Tatyana developed an interest in portraiture. Among her inspirations was a workshop with Jon Houghton and his teaching of Daniel Greene’s old Masters palette. Tatyana has also studied a traditional Ukrainian decorative painting style Petrikivka with a Ukrainian master Larissa Glukhoman.

Tatyana holds an M.A. in Arts Administration. She lives and paints in Wilmington, NC. Her favorite subject matters are people and places.