About the Artist - Masha D’yans
Pink Magazine is excited to welcome back internationally successful artist Masha D’yans for her fourth Pink Magazine cover. May features her delightful watercolor “Blown Away”.
A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Masha moved to the U.S. when she was 14. After high school, which was spent following her artistic muse, she gained admission to the fine arts program at Cooper Union for The Advancement of Science and Art in New York, where she studied painting, printmaking and graphic design. After graduation she worked as a senior art director, focusing on brand identity for a number of design and advertising agencies in Boston. Her client roster included accounts such as Human Scale and Reebok. Despite her professional success in graphic design, she never forgot her love for painting and illustration.
Feeling that so much art was lost in commerce, and, well, because she wanted to do what she loved, in 2002 Masha launched a greeting card company based on her own watercolors. Beautifully printed on uncoated card stock, Masha’s cards focus on the artwork as the message. Her playful, sensitive, colorful and tactile painting style draws on a plethora of inspirations, including fashion, animation, calligraphy, Japanese art, nature and, of course, Russian fairy tales. Whimsical and sophisticated, her themes are evocative of a child’s imagination—euphoric abandon, everyday mystery, and the beauty of imperfection.
In an industry dominated by computer generated and stock art, Masha’s cards have found a large audience. They have been sold internationally at upscale stores, such as Barneys NY, Louis Boston, Neiman Marcus, Whole Foods Markets and the Art Store. As the card line grows, based on the same principle of infusing commerce with art, Masha D’yans Design is expanding to a wider variety of products. She recently launched a line of gifts and apparel.
Masha’s New Year’s Ball design was chosen by The Museum of Modern Art for its renowned holiday card line. It has since become the Museum’s top seller and has won the international Louie Award. Pentel, the famous Japanese pen company, is spotlighting Masha’s cards as an exclusive complement to the writing instruments in its newly launched online store.
Masha’s artwork empire has continued to grow, as she has branched into pop-up cards, calendars, books, school supplies, notebooks, puzzle books, textiles, bags, bookmarks, pens, fabric, art prints and much, much more. Masha has also published two books A Poem as Big as New York City: Little Kids Write About the Big Apple (in conjunction with Teachers’ Writers’ Collaboartive) and Razzle-Dazzle Ruby.
To purchase or view more of Trish Biddle’s work log onto www.trishbiddle.com
or visit her Facebook page.To purchase Candace Lovely’s artwork and gift items, visit her website and shop online at www.candacelovely.com. You are invited to visit her studio by appointment. Please call 843-681-6632 for more information.