"Dust" by Oriana Kacicek

This was a commissioned piece, derived from an image of a 1937 dustbowl photo found in the Library of Congress over at Shorpy.com

http://orianakacicek.blogspot.com

Born in 1986, Pennsylvania native Oriana Kacicek spent her early years in a nurturing environment of great art, dance, music and literature. Inspired and encouraged by her mother, also a painter, she began painting and drawing at the age of one and continued the practice throughout her teenage years. She trained for her career as a ballet dancer at the School of American Ballet in NYC, performing on the New York State Theater and Metropolitan Opera House stages, and continued to perform as a professional at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. During a trip to Europe and the Netherlands, hours spent at the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay and the Rijksmuseum inspired her to return to painting as a career. Influenced by the light and color of the European Impressionist and Dutch painters, Oriana's hyper-realist style is infused with wit and energy.