Biography Maria Shevchenko was born in 1982 in Russia and grew up in Ukraine since 1994, where she graduated from Poltava University of Economics and Trade. In 2011, she studied painting at the studio of Anna Flegantova. In 2012, Maria started a successful business in the service sector and was the head of a beauty salon until the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Maria and her son were forced to immigrate to the United States, California. She had to start her life from scratch and the transformation of a woman who fled from war to freedom was reflected in her work. From 2024 to the present day, Maria is a student at Orange Coast College, art department