"I was born in Utena, small provincial town in Lithuania, in 1977. I was lucky to arrive in a family that appreciated all kinds of arts – music, literature, photography, wooden sculpture, drawing. My parents encouraged me to do all kind of things – they payed my cultural education depriving their own needs. I started attending music school at 6 and graduated it at 16. Playing the piano is still something I love a lot. However, I never felt it as my favourite occupation. Neither I ever considered sculpture since I never believed myself capable of sculpting. It was something sacred. Something destined for others. Thus, I was drawing. I loved drawing. At that time there were two kinds of schools for children in Lithuania: that of music and that of fine arts. These schools were supposed to prepare children for further professional education. Which means at 18 I could choose to sudy at a music conservatory, but there were strictly no chances for me to get to a very good school of Fine Arts in Vilnius... So, I chose languages at Vilnius University.
Once, I remember, I came across a box of oils of my father. I could not find a single brush at home and I could not wait to try it so I started painting with my own fingers. It was a portrait and it is still there, at my parents’, hidden somewhere... I fell in love with colours at this very moment. More than that, I fell in love with imagination!
I loved photography, too. My brother showed me the magic of black and white photography. I keep wonderful memories of numberless sleepless nights in my room surrounded by hundreds of photos, breathing fixer-saturated air...
Why sculpture? No idea. As if it was always there, waiting to reveal itself or to emerge when I am ready. When I was a kid I found once a piece of clay in the garden. I had no clue of what it was. I just took it into my hands realising it was magic. I remember it stroke me. I realized I could do whatever I wanted to with it, I was sure it would obey me. I knew it would. I did something with it but then the clay dried and broke into pieces.
There was another moment when I found a piece of wood and my grandpa’s tools and starded sculpting a boat... My grandpa did not want to take a responsibility of me being injured so he hid all his tools...
In terms of sculpture I was lucky to be born in Lithuania – there are so many sculptures there everywhere. In wood, in stone, in bronze. I remember observing them for hours. I did not have the possibility of sculpting myself, but I was learning so much just looking at them, watching them, observing them. I still love going to Lithuania to discover there new sculptures again and again...
After my studies at Vilnius University I arrived in France to discover that my Bachelor degree of languages was not valid there... Strangely enough, straight away I happened to meet a teacher of Applied Arts School of Rouen who proposed me to attend her courses. I did not hesitate. This was the beginning of the most exciting story."
