Nadia Raskina

I am an artist currently living in New Orleans, LA. I am self-taught and I studied Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New Orleans. Me and my mother immigrated from St. Petersburg, Russia when I was four years old. Coming from a different culture I had a very narrow vision of what my life and career would look like. Since moving to the United States, I moved 14 times all around the country before ending up in Slidell, LA. My mom pressured me into majoring in Accounting, but a few years in I changed my major to Engineering. 

I really loved studying mathematics, I was so excited to learn about exponential functions, the Golden ratio, fractals and all the interesting and beautiful mysteries that the Universe had to offer. But I soon realized, that liking math didn't make me a good engineer. While taking a gap year I started looking for hobbies to keep myself entertained and that is when I started drawing and painting, I didn't paint my first canvas until I was 23 years old. 

I use a protractor, compass, and T-square to start off all of my mandala paintings. I love working with acrylics mostly but also experiment with ink drawings. I also sew, and have my own line of accessories called Miss Mandala Designs. Being born in Russia and raised with a strict parent has given me a good work ethic, and traveling and experiencing life fills me with inspiration, being able to channel both aspects of myself into one body of work has been extremely rewarding. 

Miss Mandala is kind of my alter ego; the fun, colorful, and adventurous person that was lying dormant inside me my entire life. Through my artwork I like to combine my love for math and physics with my love of dance and movement. Mandalas symbolize wholeness, which is the strive for harmony between the conscious and unconscious. What started as a meditative practice for me to organize my inner world has helped me order my outer world as well.

I try to convey a sense of movement with my work. Sacred geometry is said to be a representation of visual harmony, and I seek to represent movement with flowing shapes and colors.