Irina Smth's Art & Bio

Irina Smith is originally from Tomsk, Russia and moved to Arkansas in 2009. She and her husband Clark have lived in Hot Springs since 2021. Irina graduated from Tomsk State University in Tomsk, Russia with a Masters degree in history. Highly trained in the restoration of rare books and antique documents, Irina worked in the Scientific Library at Tomsk State University for 13 years. Her area of expertise is restoring manuscripts, incunabula and other ancient documents. Irina feels that relocating to another country and culture when she did, helped her in expanding her creativity to discover and explore new things in life. Over the years she has been occupying herself with many hobbies including furniture restoration and repurposing, discovering a love for pottery, creating Christmas tree ornaments, memorabilia boxes and many new things to keep both her mind and her hands busy. Several years ago Irina discovered a new and unknown to her world  called “Mandalas”. She was so fascinated with its beauty that she picked up a paintbrush for the first time.  After learning from the masters and many hours of trial and error actually painting Mandalas, her own new and exciting journey had begun. Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning circle, or center. Mandalas are seen throughout multiple organized religions, ancient civilizations and nature. The defining element in Mandala’s design is symmetry. Among the others are geometry, color, numbers and intention. If you paint with an intention or inner request it will manifest throughout design of your mandala. It can also reflect your inner state, over the line help to harmonize it. It is very intuitive, calming, a stress releasing and transformational process. It is possible to create individual mandalas for people’s specific  requests or desire. Irina’s prime medium in painting is mandalas acrylic. Using watercolor is a plan for her foreseeable future. She is studying sacred geometry which is also reflected in her latest paintings. Her works can be seen at Artists’ Workshop Gallery in Hot Springs.
If you would like to contact Irina, you can do so at: Email - iasmith45@gmail.com Phone - 870-830-4300

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