2026 Artist: Victoria Tkaczevski

As Arts Marathon artists we will send a different example of our creative process and work to everyone who sponsors us, 3-5 days per week during April. We invite our friends, family, colleagues and anyone else who cares about art and wants to support Bridge to Rutland’s important work to sponsor us. Together we will help welcome new Americans who, in turn, will add immeasurably to our communities.

Victoria‘s Arts Marathon Goal

I will be sharing my progress with current paintings, interspersed with stories and pictures about past paintings. I will be working at least on some miniatures 6" x 6" or 8" x 8", and a still life 11" x 14". There are bound to be some surprises as well!!

Victoria‘s Background

Ever since I can remember, I have loved making art. I loved coloring as a child. My family had a set of nature books with pictures of animals that I would copy, using pastels, crayons, paint, charcoal, and whatever my parents gave me. Tigers were my favorite, but I drew everything from boa constrictors to horn bills. At the time, I wanted to be a zookeeper when I grew up, so I could be with animals all the time. By age 18, my goal changed and I went to the University of Hartford to get my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting. Rather than continuing with realism, I explored abstract expressionism, making huge colorful compositions first in oils , and then in acrylics. After college, I combined my painting career with freelancing in graphic design. I worked for corporations in the Boston area, designing newsletters about the stock market, health insurance booklets, doing illustrations for a garden center, etc. It was a busy time. More and more of the design work was done with the computer. When the September 11 attack happened in 2001, the economy changed. I was changing, too. I decided to become a nurse, and art took a back seat. It never disappeared, though, When you really love art, it is always there in your heart. Now I am in my sixties and have reached a happy compromise; I work about two shifts a week as a nurse, and spend my mornings painting.
Proudest accomplishments
I started a Diary of Miniatures in September 2025 that will be finished by the time the Marathon begins. It was a personal marathon; I painted a business card sized area of a large canvas almost daily until I had 56 little pictures representing 3 months of scenes from my life arranged on it in a grid. The discipline of painting every day has made me a better painter. I'll be sure to share something about this piece during the marathon.
I learned about the Arts Marathon through Carrie Moulton, whom I sponsored last year. She has been watching my progress on my Diary of Miniatures and suggested she would sponsor me if I did the marathon this year. It will be a delightful thing for me to talk about art to an interested audience, and since I keep a sketch diary and always have some kind of art in the works to talk about, there will be plenty of material. I hope to inspire, educate, and entertain.
As far as what would donors find interesting... I find beauty in unusual places. My sock drawer. The bottle tree at the dump. The solar array behind the church. I will also paint the wild turkeys walking by, and the path through the trees, and the still life in my friend's doorway. What I aim to do is reflect the beauty I find in the world and help others see it, too. I look forward to welcoming sponsors into my art world.

Art Samples