Mariya Baskind

Bethesda, Maryland

Mariya uses Mixed Media, including acrylic, paint, gouache, markers, pens, and chalk, to create modern, contemporary abstracts, graffiti, and pop art with a distinct feminine style.

Mariya “Masha” Baskind was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Her grandfather who raised her, a famous Russian artist himself, noticed that his little girl couldn't put the pencil down and right away he knew that another artist was born.

He took her out of her standard elementary school and transferred her to a special art school for emerging talents. After high school, Masha went on to pursue Fine Arts at the Academy of Art, studying drawing, painting, fashion design, architecture and interior design, finally settling on graphic design. After college, she moved to the US to reunite with her grandparents, who emigrated when she was a teenager.

To Masha, art always was and is a mirror of herself at that particular moment. She describes it as a trance, time and place don't exist anymore, only shapes, colors and dance of hands. Creation of something-whether a painting, graffiti or piece of clothing- is air that she breathes and that she wouldn't be able to live without.

For Masha, art is a universe where any desires and fantasies come to life, her why. To anyone that knows her, Masha feels in shapes and colors. It's a whole other world, one that she would like to take you. It’s a world of Magic.