Meet Natalya Khorover | Artist, Educator, Artivist (art+activist)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Natalya Khorover and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Natalya, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
It was all very gradual. I was a freelancer in my earlier career and always loved having my own schedule, so when I started creating art, selling it and teaching it while being an at-home-mom, I didn’t even realize that I had started my own business initially. But the more work and teaching requests I received, the more I started thinking that there was a business here that I loved. Then I started educating myself about running a small business and fine tuning my offerings and the reasons behind them.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
These days almost all of my artwork is created from soft single-use plastic. Most of my materials come from daily life. I collect single-use plastic food packaging in my home, or clean up trash on my walks and bring it to my studio to transform it. Stitching and collaging is how I transform these repurposed materials.

Zero waste is the ultimate goal for my practice. And making sure that everyone knows that they too can repurpose materials for their art is my other goal.

I am delighted to be able to engage with people of all ages by introducing them to art making with found materials or educating them about the problems of plastic pollution as they are enjoying viewing my artwork.

I am still working on getting my message out to the world. It’s is not easy in this busy environment and with low attention spans of hardworking people with so much on their plates already. But because I truly believe in the importance of the message and the need to have a cleaner planet for our children, I will always keep going.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I have never been to Denver! It’s on my bucket list!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I like to dedicate my shout out to BeyondPlastics.org for always being there to provide factual and current information about the plastic pollution which drives the inspiration for my artwork and my activism.

Website: https://www.artbynatalya.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artbynatalya/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artbynatalya/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ0ZWXG0nIeMLXfOgau360Q

Image Credits
Ana Szilagyi Photographer