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Artist

Kateryna Metelytsia

Kateryna Metelytsia Ukrainian artist snowstorm art studio

Biography

Kateryna Metelytsia is a Ukrainian artist who lives and works in Austin, Texas, USA. She was born in Kyiv, Ukraine in September 1981 in the family of a scientist microbiologist - mother, and an airport technician - father.
 
Since Kateryna's mother plays the piano very well, they had a large collection of music books at home. One of them was the collected works of Beethoven with a portrait of Beethoven on the cover. This portrait was drawn on a black background by white lines. When Kateryna was about 4 years old she tried to copy this portrait. Then her mother took her to an art studio, where she sculpted with interest.

The turning point in her choice of profession was played by her first art teacher when Kateryna was 4 years old. Kateryna really liked sculpting, but then drawing lessons began, Kateryna refused to study in the studio. The teacher made a lot of efforts to keep Kateryna from dropping out of school - she allowed her to practice various crafts and sit at her desk. And Kateryna began to draw. Since then, there has not been a day when Kateryna didn't draw anything. She copied many illustrations from different artists and different books, drew portraits of girlfriends, she drew in the studio, at home, and even in classes at school. She also attended dance classes, choir, and piano classes of course. Art became bottomless and boundless for her.

When the first teacher moved to another country, Kateryna after a short break continued her studies, and from 1993 to 1996 she studied at art school No. 2 (Kyiv, Ukraine). For three years she studied art history, art graphics, painting, composition, sculpture, and anatomy.

From 1996 to 2001 she studied at the Kyiv State Institute of Decorative and Applied Art and Design named after M. Boychuk (Kyiv, Ukraine). In particular, she mastered technologies of designing and decorative finishing and metal manufacturing jewelry of noble metals: sets of souvenirs, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, anniversary cups, gifts, and prize weapons, coats of arms, badges. Learned to create highly artistic works of sacred art, learned modern technologies of artistic metal: features of working with noble metals, metal plastics, minting, casting, engraving, filigree, art soldering, inlay, galvanoplastic.

At this time, she was fond of cycling in Crimea, received the third category in rock climbing and her friend taught her to play the guitar. Katerina's first guitar came from her father, who was the guitarist in the amateur band in his younger years, when he served in the army, and later. Then she got an antique guitar from her teacher, and now she has a beautiful new brand guitar.
 
After earning her Bachelor of Arts in 2001, she worked as a graphic designer but lacked skills in this area, and in 2002 she entered the National Technical University of Ukraine “Institute of Publishing and Printing of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” (Kyiv, Ukraine). She studied fine arts, fundamentals of composition, a composition for printing, book illustration, art graphics, painting, type design, printmaking, printing technologies of various modern printing machines, etching, linocut, photography fundamentals, art history, sculpture, anatomy, and worked for a large publishing house since 2003.
 
She combined her studies, work, personal life, and from 2004 to 2007 she was a member of the European student organization AEGEE and traveled across Europe for cultural exchange.

The style of her first paintings was greatly influenced by her studying at the first institute. Her style was more decorative, she paid great attention, as a jeweler, to details. This style was on the verge of realism and decorativeness. The paintings were painted on a black background and the colors acquired density and volume. She dedicated several paintings to ancient precious jewelry of Ukrainian women, which were inherited and were of great importance for every Ukrainian family in 19 century.

In 2006 she successfully graduated and received a Bachelor of Arts degree, then in 2008 a Master's degree at the same institute, and in 2009 she was promoted to the position of art director in a publishing house. An impeccable sense of taste, love for the art of leadership of the publishing house - these are the people from whom Kateryna learned a lot and who instilled in her a sense of love for high-quality books and print products. Now books, competently and tastefully designed, which are pleasant to hold in hands, and sometimes even just to have in your library for their high-quality performance, is her passion.
 
From 2010 to 2012, Kateryna opened a children's art studio in Ukraine. To improve her qualifications as a teacher, she completed advanced training courses for teachers in the framework of the program of the Main Department of Education and Science of the Kyiv Regional State Administration of Postgraduate Education for Teachers "Formation of a Creative Personality". She wrote the curriculum for her studio, her students actively participated in exhibitions and competitions. After the studio was closed, the curriculum was approved by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, and Kateryna transferred it to the Children's Arts Center.

In 2012, Kateryna decided to try herself in the field of computer games and for the next two years successfully worked as a computer game artist for a Ukrainian-American company. Work in this industry also left an imprint on her paintings. Subjects have ceased to be on the Ukrainian theme and have become more about nature.

Since 2014, thanks to the support of her husband, Kateryna Metelytsia is completely committed to art - she paints in completely different genres on a black background in different styles, successfully participates in exhibitions and competitions at different levels, marked with diplomas and certificates.

And Kateryna also has a childhood dream to play a role in a movie. She really likes comedies, especially french ones, and in 2017 she graduated from acting classes. She hasn't had a chance to apply her new skills since she, her husband, and a dachshund named Pepsi moved to Austin, TX in 2017.
 
In 2019, due to popular demand, as a practicing artist, she opened the doors of her art studio for children and adult art lovers. For the name of the studio, she took her last name. Snowstorm - so her name is literally translated from Ukrainian into English.
 
Now she paints, experiments with different techniques and materials, enjoys the success of her students, studies the profession of an art-therapist, plans to illustrate and publish a series of books with her illustrations, and dreams of devoting time to her new black guitar.

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