Svetlana Talabolina is an award-winning artist and muralist based in the Los Angeles area. Born in Estonia during the Soviet Union era, she draws inspiration from her travels throughout Europe and the United States. Her work, a blend of abstract and figurative styles, is fundamentally an exploration of the human spirit and the raw emotions that guide her journey. Instead of painting a horizon, she paints the landscape within her soul. "Every painting tells an emotional moment of a story," she says.

Svetlana's portrait of Frida Kahlo, entitled "La Mujer Que Pintó el Dolor" (The Woman Who Painted the Pain), is a monumental tribute to one of the world's greatest female painters and a spectacular work of art. Her work has been featured in Art Squat Magazine (where she was also Artist of the Year for 2021), Art Reveal Magazine (UK), and LA Downtown News, among others to name a few.

In addition to painting on canvases, Svetlana is gaining notoriety as a muralist. The cornerstone of her mural work so far is the 2022 piece "Inside of Time" at the Continental Building in DTLA, a gorgeous tribute to Matisse's 'Blue Nudes.' This mural, stretching nearly five stories high, also features a massive clock from the perspective of someone looking out into the world and experiencing time differently.

Svetlana's love for art started at a young age, inspired by her mother, Tatyana. "When my sister and I were little, my mom used to paint fairy tale characters on the wallpaper in our room: princesses, Mickey Mouse, etc. They were always as large as the entire wall, starting at the bottom and nearly reaching the ceiling."

By the age of nine, Svetlana was actively drawing faces and eyes. That is when she drew her first self-portrait. "I remember looking into a round-shaped mirror, seeing my face, but not actually seeing me; it was as if every line of my face was an individual entity, like a puzzle I was putting together based on the image I was given. No fear—a pure connection between my hand and my vision."

However, not finding the inspiration she sought, Svetlana stopped drawing around age sixteen. "I was no longer inspired; something was missing." She began traveling, hoping to find new experiences to excite her mind and soul. "I looked for experiences, emotions, love, lust, breakdowns, highs, and lows. In 2016, my life brought me back to my first love: art." The world is her inspiration, along with all the fascinating aspects of human nature. "When I see an artwork that gives me an emotion, my eyes naturally capture the intricacies of the piece. I always try to break it down, like a detective figuring out a crime scene, step by step putting the pieces together, wanting to know how it was created."

Being an extremely emotional creature, Svetlana is mesmerized by human nature—the whole of what we are: our physique, feelings, connections with one another, and the unique reasoning behind it all. "I live on raw emotions and strive to capture them with my brushes. I deeply enjoy exploring different subjects, but we, the people, remain my true obsession."

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The universal themes found in her work are indeed a huge part of the draw to her art, and the raw, unfiltered way in which she paints these truths makes her expressive artwork so captivating. "What you see in my artwork is the tale of my story, but it is possibly your story as well."