When I started looking for an artist to create the image for our holiday card this year, I came across the work of Yelena Bryksenkova and immediately fell in love with her unique aesthetic, clearly influenced by her travels and studies in eastern Europe. Her work shows a love for eastern European folk traditions, and seeing it reminded me of a wonderful week my wife and I spent in the cafes and museums of Vienna and its environs long ago. It was the image above, portraying a young couple's adventures at the annual Christmas market in Tallinn, Estonia that inspired me to write and ask if she would accept a commission for our holiday card. And I'm so glad she did.
Yelena was born in Russia, raised in the American Midwest, and she currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland (where she recently completed a course of study at MICA). I really love her fashion illustrations and feel that beyond her great figurative drawing, she has a real talent for creating different textures of clothing (and flora). Check out some of the other images she's shared on her website:
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| Available for purchase here (I think this print would make a really great gift for a knitter) |
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| Available for purchase here. |
