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Biography Irina Place was born in 1967 of Russian parentage in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic. The country is separated from China by a mountainous chain that is a northern extension of the Himalayas called Tien Shan in Mandarin. More then a hundred nationalities lived there with there cuisines, beliefs and customs, languages and dress. Her childhood was blessed by the riches of Russian folk tales and songs, literature and poetry. From early on she loved to draw and paint but the lack of artist grade materials made it a frustrating experience. A linguist and a Dickens scholar by training, she lived in France and England, where she worked for and defended a Ph.D. thesis in English Literature from Reading University. She came to live in Hawaii in 1996 and considers it a turning point of her life. Painting became a response to the natural beauty around. She quotes the words of Dostoevsky: “Beauty will save the world” adding: “I do not claim to understand how it will work but I would like to contribute”. She is also a yoga teacher, a writer of short stories and poetry, an inspired cook, a gardener and a keeper of a menagerie of animals. |