I’m Kseniia Balakirieva - also known for my friends as Ksyu or Nia - and my motivation to paint is to show how wonderful the world is. My paintings are always reflections of my thoughts, my meditative states of mind, and the things that catch my attention every day.

This painting was created when I fell in love and felt that it was something more than just a human experience. It felt like something beyond the physical world. I think this was one of the first paintings I finished very quickly. I’m not sure exactly how long it took, but I’d say it was around a couple of weeks.

For me, it’s important that art captures people and makes them think and feel - whatever that may be. There is no positive or negative in these reactions for me; there is simply something in them that makes a human, human.