Natalia Zanko Bio

Natalia Zanko was born in 1986 in a big historical city of Kazan in Russia. Even being a child she got very interested in different forms of art. Despite of financial hardship in the family Natalia, at the age of 11, decided to go to school of modern arts where she studied for 5 years. It was a modern school with the best teachers in the city and that school influenced her future life. At the same time Natalia was becoming a professional athlete. There was no much time to play with other children – all the time was spent on arts and sports.

In 2001 Natalia graduated from the art school with honor and later in 2002 she went to Spain to join another art school to master her talent and skills. Spain is famous for its best art schools. It was a great experience studying with the best students from all over Europe.

After moving back to Russia in 2003 Natalia went to Moscow to enter Moscow State University of Arts which is considered one of the top art schools. During that time she participated in numerous exhibitions, contests and fashion shows. But, hard financial times came for Natalia and she had to sell her paintings, she spent lots of sleepless nights doing other students’ projects and homework for money just to be able to stay in school and create.  Her favorite professor was Fakil Fathudinov who influenced her future.

In 2007 Natalia decided to go to San Francisco, California, USA to practice in restoration of old paintings but unfortunately the contract with the company was cancelled and she went to San Diego, CA. After looking for a job for quite some time Natalia found a position as a body artist. But that wasn’t what she was looking for. She kept looking for opportunities to use her talent, experience and skills and later on was able to find some mural projects.

Then, all of a sudden, a tragedy stroke – her father got shot and killed back in Russia… Natalia locked herself from the world. It took her some time to get over the thought that her father was dead and she had to move on. Little by little she was getting back on track. There were more mural projects and at the same time Natalia was working on her own fashion design which is her real passion.

A month later after Natalia came to San Diego she met her future husband Raman Zanko and in June 2008 they got married.

She’s looking forward to creating more ideas and things.