Evaluator Darya Tsymbalyuk (Art lover)

I have received a BA in Studio Art from Kenyon College, OH (USA) in 2013. After graduation I came back to my home country Ukraine, where together with two colleagues (Julia Filipieva, Victor Zasypkin) I founded "Donbas Odyssey", an art group that works with oral histories and mental maps of the displaced and realises interventions in public spaces to tell their stories. I also keep drawing and painting, some of my work can be found here daryatsymbalyuk.weebly.com My experience in the art world has not always been positive. It is further complicated by the fact that I left my country when I was 17 and studied abroad for 8 years in 4 different countries, so when I eventually came back to my home country I found myself not knowing anybody in the art world. It seems to me that the art world is run by connections, and if you don't know anybody and also have no financial support, it is extremely difficult to enter the art universe. I've felt very discouraged in the past few years, but at the same time I can not give up making art despite all the closed doors, because as dramatic as it sounds I don't know how to live without it.