For the first article of 2021 we have decided to interview Natalia Dinsel-Bondarenko, a young self taught abstract artist. In the next lines she will show us how body, mind and art are interconnected to improve our well being.

On ArtSail platform self represented artists are not so many. This has been a precise choice: every artist is deeply evaluated to understand his/her power of expression and the quality of his/her artistic expression.
Only the best emerging artists can join the platform and undoubtedly Natalia Dinsel-Bondarenko is one of this.

Her artworks can be found in many private and corporate art collections around the world and I guess one of the main reasons is that Natalia Dinsel-Bondarenko’s paintings make viewers sense the depth of life.
Everyone can see something different in her creations, but the positive vibrations behind her paintings are undeniable. They inspire you to move forward and look beyond the horizon, rethinking about your everyday life, your past and your future dreams.
In fact Natalia tries to transmit through her artworks how the universe is infinite and how important is the simple joy that children feel, but that we gradually lost as we grow up.
The major theme of her artworks is the exploration of the idea of boundlessness.

The artists is currently living in Hamburg, Germany, and she is also a therapist. Her career and life experiences help Natalia to channel her thoughts and emotions from brush to canvas via intuitive gestures.
The philosophical view on the meaning of life and on the human’s pursuit of happiness is the basis of her artistic expression.
Her artworks are very colourful and vibrant: Natalia will speak about them and her artistic career in the next lines.
One of her future artistic desiderata? Finding an artist residency to explore and develop deeply the theme of human childhood and the interconnections between our past and everyday life.

Enjoy the reading.


E.R. When and how did you understand you wanted to become an artist?

N.D.B. In my second career as a life coach I studied numerous types of therapy. One of the trainings was an introduction to the art therapy. I was amazed about how powerful it was, especially for people who were open to it. I got curious, learned more about it, practiced, and then, as probably in every exciting story, there was a crucial turning point…. It was long time ago. I met an art professor who was working together with one famous art therapist. They were sharing the therapy practice and art studio, I guess. So, I asked him - "would you mind to give me some tipps about which painting technics would serve my clients better? Could you show me the best painting styles I could use in my sessions for my clients?” What can I say - after the first class with him, I knew that I am entering a new chapter in my life. Thanks to him I discovered that I am able to communicate my emotions and my state of mind through my paintings. To make a long story short - since then working with the paints is not only my love and my passion, but it is just a very important part of my life. When I am travelling longer than 3 days, I am starting to miss my studio :-)





E.R. You are also a therapist and a life coach: how can you combine these two sides of your personality, creativity and knowledge of human being?

N.D.B. To be honest, to me these fields just belong together. Same with the science of yoga. I am also a certified yoga teacher, and I decided to work with yoga because I strongly believe that body and mind are more connected that we imagined before. You can cure the mind through your body, and you can cure your body through the mind. You can cure your mind and body through the art too… So, as you can see, all fields of my work - art, psychology, yoga - they are all connected, and have the same goal - to help people to discover their true self. To help people to re-connect with their inner core. This is the way to find the inner peace and joy.

In all of these sectors I am able to work with topics that are important to me: the nature of human being, philosophical view on life in general, our pursuit of happiness, spirituality - just to name the few. My art is the expression of my life experiences, my inner processes, and my understanding of the total interconnectedness in life.

People buy my art not only because they find the colours beautiful. My collectors love that deeper meaning that lies in the core of every painting of mine. Each painting is very personal, since it is an intuitive art. Every painting is the expression of the state of mind at this very moment. It‘s a snap-shot of my thoughts and my emotions. Therefore there are no look-alike paintings in my collection. They are all different. They are all unique. And that’s what my collectors appreciate too, I guess!





E.R. Could you describe us one of your artworks displayed on Artsail that particularly reflects your poetics and painting style?

N.D.B. Let’s have a look at the painting “MANUSCRIPT”. It has many layers (actually like the majority of my paintings). Usually I hide the previous layers completely, but in this painting I let the viewer recognise my symbolic idea of the complexity of our multilayered life. Layer by layer the painting (like our life) changes its look, the colours change too, but the previous layers can still be seen through. It‘s my symbolic way of expressing how our life experiences are forming our life journey. There is no good or bad in this statement; all I want to say is that the “past” is already a part of our life and will belong to the “picture” forever, but you can put a layer of a nice color on it and make this “past" become responsible for the harmonious look of the whole picture. As mentioned before my painting type is totally intuitive, and to express my thoughts and feelings I use what I find around in my studio - acrylic paints, spray paints, different kind of texture paste and other mediums.





E.R. Can you tell us some of your future artistic projects?

N.D.B. One project is already quite for a while on my mind - the series of paintings dedicated to the topic “the power of childhood roots in our grown-up life”. Based on my education, my work and my personal experiences I know two truths: 1) our current behaviour and the choices we do has very strong roots in our childhood; it rules our life stronger than we can ever imagine; 2) although we can’t change our past, its possible to make the transformation in our mind on a different level, and to transform our wounds into our strengths, to help our subconscious mind to see the things from a different point of view.
It will be for sure a deep work for me and I’d not like to do this work during my daily routine. Therefore looking for a nice artist residency for this purpose, where I can be totally alone for 1 or 2 weeks, being able to dive into this topic deeply and to put the results on several canvases.

The human being is the most complex alive entity: only art can embrace it.