Reconnecting to Wonder

Victoria Semykina, The Backgammon Players, illustration for Baku Magazine

There is something about illustration that is magical. In the right hands, the lines and figures transform into a path back to childhood - not necessarily in theme but in the feeling that all is magic, that the world is good, and that anything is possible. It’s a feeling of lightness, wonder and expectation (try to remember yourself as a very young child) that is so often forgotten amidst the vast and varied experiences of adulthood.

Victoria Semykina, Sailors, personal project

Victoria Semykina is an award winning fine art artist, illustrator and printmaker who lives and works in Bologna. Her playful approach to illustration is inspired by everything she sees around her as well as her love of travel and immersion in local cultures, her Russian roots, and her love for the sea. She says that thinking of ships and the sea takes her back to childhood, to a moment of awe when she first saw the sea at age 5.

Victoria Semykina, Sailors, personal project

Through her perspective, even difficult themes such as loneliness - we’ve all been there - acquire a feeling of warmth and an optimism that it is just a phase and that it too shall pass, that we will find a way to connect with other souls, lonely or otherwise, the warmth of whose lights shines from windows all around us.

Victoria Semykina, Lonesome, illustration for De Morgen magazine

Some of Semykina’s works are created as illustrations for books and magazines while others, like the Sailors personal project inspired by Sevastopol and Odessa, are her own whimsical stories, told visually.

After graduating in painting with a Gold Medal from the Moscow State Art Academy, Victoria Semykina decided to continue her studies in Italy where she fell in love with Bologna and decided to stay. Her clients include The New Yorker, Tate Modern, Penguin, Esquire, GQ, Forbes, and Oxford Press. You can see more of her artworks here:

https://www.semykina.confer