How Ceramics Took Over
From Traditional Training to Murals
I grew up studying art, first in children's art school and later continuing with more formal training. That eventually brought me to Yekaterinburg, where I studied painting and art education at Sverdlovsk Art College, followed by monumental art at the Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts. My background was very traditional—drawing, painting, and composition.
When I moved to Los Angeles, that training naturally led me to murals. I worked as a muralist for several years, painting directly into architectural spaces and working at a scale much larger than a canvas.
From Animation to Clay
After having my first child, I took a break from murals. A little later, my creative path took an unexpected turn into animation.
Animation had always fascinated me. You could draw something—and suddenly it could move. It could talk. A completely invented image could tell a story and feel alive. This was long before AI made moving images feel ordinary, and to me it was incredibly exciting.
I studied animation at the Academy of Entertainment and Technology in Santa Monica and started working in the field. But the more hours I spent in front of a computer, the more I realized that something was missing.
I missed making things.
Not drawing them on a screen. Actually making them—touching the material, building something physical, getting my hands dirty.
So in 2013, I signed up for one ceramics class.
That was it.
I became completely absorbed by clay. I left my animation career that same day, after taking my first ceramics class, and ceramics took over my practice. What was supposed to be one class became something I have now been doing every day for more than a decade.
Looking back, ceramics somehow brought everything together. Painting gave me color and composition. Monumental art and murals taught me to think about scale and architecture. Animation gave me movement and repetition. Clay gave all of it a physical form.
Seva Ceramics Today
Today, through Seva Ceramics, I work primarily with ceramic wall installations and sculptural vessels, including large-scale and site-specific work for residential, hospitality, and commercial spaces.
The Monarch Hotel San Antonio, TX
Some of my larger projects include more than 1,000 ceramic pieces created for the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Grand Rapids; a composition that moves through more than 100 feet of the Healing Garden at Norman Regional Hospital in Oklahoma; and a flowing ceramic installation for Regent Santa Monica Beach, spanning over 100 feet and bringing together more than 1,000 individual pieces.
And after all the different directions my work has taken, ceramics is the medium I still want to return to every day.
Have a project in mind?
If you’re considering a ceramic installation, I’d be happy to hear about your space and what you have in mind.
