North Shore Volunteer Spotlight: Anastasia Sitnikova

Each year as the school year ends and summer begins the North Shore is gifted a seasonal group of dedicated and lively summer volunteers. Anastasia Sitnikova, brought her extensive art knowledge and thoughtful attitude to the North Shore for a short but sweet time. Originally from Moscow Russia, Anastasia studies fine art at Harper College. Her style covers a wide range of subjects and mediums from realistic still life drawings and paintings to found object sculptures and animated collages. You can find more of her work at https://www.anastasiasitnikova.com Please enjoy as I drop you into a conversation between Anastasia and North Shore studio artist Ed Rawski; ER: How’d you hear about the Arts of Life?AS: I’m studying art at the college and I was looking for an opportunity to apply my skills to volunteering activities. ER: Like here?AS: Yes like here, I checked volunteermatch and it was what the site offered to me. ER: That’s nice. Did you know any of the artists before starting here? Like artists from different places or just us?AS: I didn’t know about this particular place. I was looking forward to this opportunity for quite a long time trying to fit it into my schedule so I read all articles about artists in the studio before I came here and I was very interested to work with all of you. ER: Thank you. What did you like most about Arts of Life? Did you know mostly about working here?AS: Yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. I think you all do an awesome job. What I like most is that it’s a variety of styles, that every artist has a certain style what he or she practices and it’s so cool to see all the different approaches to art making and it’s very inspirational. It inspires me for my own practice to see all the variety. ER: What do you like most about being in the studio environment?AS: I think it’s a very friendly environment. Nobody was ever mean to me and everybody was friendly to each other and it’s very relaxing atmosphere that I enjoy to be in. ER: Are you an artist? If so what kind of art do you do? Like paintings and all that?AS: I’m starting art and teaching art a little bit. I don’t want to call myself an artist yet because I don’t have an established art practice but I’m trying different mediums. Painting and drawing and sculpture, I’m trying to find my style and what really fits my taste and preference. ER: Do you have a favorite artist?AS: I do have a lot of favorite artists and it changes everyday. Several weeks ago we went to Milwaukee and the artist’s name was Rashid Johnson. He had a show in the Milwaukee Art Museum. I hadn’t heard about him before but I went to the show and found him really interesting. He combines sculpture with more two dimensional work which is actually what I do. He works with a wide range of materials. I like how he treats the surface and how he puts everything together. ER: What do you do when you are not at the Arts of Life?AS: I’m studying at the college and currently I’m working as a studio assistant. Also I have a family and two kids ER: Busy?AS: Yes I’m busy with all this day to day lifeER: Yeah life is life you know. Thanks AS: Thank you.