Olga Volchkova

Olga Volchkova (1970-) is from Tver, Russia and now resides in Eugene, OR. She is a painter who creates her own patron saints inspired by native and garden variety plants in the style of Russian Orthodox iconography. She went through classical art training in Tver and completed two degrees in art restoration before immigrating to New York City. There she worked briefly in art restoration before making her way to the West Coast, where she worked in digital art for a software start-up company in the Bay Area before coming to Eugene.

Olga’s work with botanical saints began with a series of “Garden Saints” for an art show in Berlin, Germany. In the Pacific Northwest, she has found inspiration in the native plants of the region. She incorporates her Russian heritage through her use of Orthodox iconography, but she also draws more broadly on Russian imagery and folklore, as well as on other cultures including those of indigenous tribes in the Pacific Northwest.

Olga captures the biological makeup, beauty and aesthetics, cultural relevance, and traditional medicinal purposes of the plants she depicts in her pieces. Some of her nature-themed saints serve as portraits of herself and her friends or tell a story serving as pieces of visual folklore. In our interview, Olga discusses the complex representations of nature and culture in her work and her artistic experiences in different periods of her life.