Paintings by Konstantina

As a child, Konstantina "played school" utilizing a plethora of art supplies and any paper product she could get her hands on, while teaching and making art with each and every stuffed animal or baby doll she had. 

It didn't stop there, as she created any time she could find anything to create with.

After spending several years living and learning at Kent State University, Deena began her 16+ year public school teaching career in the Visual Arts in 1998, full-time in 2000. A couple special years as an educator in the middle school level and several years of elementary in a variety of settings, brought Deena to a place of unfolding herself, through her paintbrush, embarking on a journey, through questioning, to find the true meaning of life, again, attempting to move through and separate from the chaos that affects every corner of this material world.

A special colleague, who with a few words of encouragement, assisted me in starting to share my work, and soon after, being selected to display in exhibition.

Konstantina affirms that opportunities of learning and gifts of encouragement flow directly from God, who resides in the heart of all living entities, who has many names according to traditions, and who guides each of our steps as we walk this earth; as well as, through a handful of special people; some family, some friends, inspiring relationships with students and families, and most profoundly, her two, kind, beautiful, and creative daughters, from whom, she continues to learn. 

Embracing with an earnest to grow deeper, in the understanding of the paralyzing nature of this world, a place where we often travel through, without question, yet suffer it's pangs constantly, lead to the production of a series of self-evaluating self-portraits on large canvas using acrylics, sometimes integrating mixed media and found natural

objects. 

Konstantina has displayed in two International Society of Acrylic Painters  ISAP-FL exhibitions, (now called Acrylic Painters USA), as well as, shown paintings and a large surfboard piece at The Beach Arts Center, at Indian Rocks Beach, Fl.

She also finds joy in creating custom works, as it offers learning and connection to others with a unique approach to a piece, as she manipulates her painting style with a clients personal vision. 

Konstantina took an opportunity, an adventure, while simultaneously caring for her health, to embark on a learning experience of opening an Art Gallery in the heart of the Arts District in St. Petersburg for short of one year. Although showing paintings and connecting with the community was successful, Konstantina's heart rests in the idea of committing her time in an environment that reveres People, though Creativity..... a place for teaching, creating and discovering; a place for connecting with the beauty of collaboration in a community that reflects spiritual values.

This platform of life has doors that close and others that open....

Konstantina shifted back, in 2017, into the teaching arena, working in a local Charter School, a community based personalized learning program that prepares students ages 16-21, for college and career, offering them an individualized self-paced approach to getting back on track to graduation.  While the school was able to retain her teaching position, Konstantina engaged with her students through relationship-focused, high-tech, yet, real-life learning experiences, first, part-time with core subject academia, following a full time engagement, teaching in the technical creative arts realm. The synergy working with these incredible young adults again strengthened Konstantina's inclination and eagerness to want to make an impact in this world through creative collaboration with others, something that lived deep within her heart, learning from the plethora of literature written by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and Bhakti Tirtha Swami.

Please enjoy this very early beginning and visit again, as Konstantina is constructing and building her gallery while learning at every step, hoping to understand, that even as each painting unfolds an instant in time, within moments each becomes irrelevant, in the scope of knowledge yet to learn.

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