This blog post is a bit different from my usual ones. As this year comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on the many conversations I’ve had with so many of you. With that in mind, I’ve decided to make a few changes to how I approach social media.
While I truly enjoy social media, I value meaningful interactions over fleeting engagements. My goal is to connect with people who genuinely want to engage in conversations—not just because my posts happen to pop up in their feeds during a quick scroll.
I want to build a community rooted in our shared passions for art, photography, design, and the exciting possibilities of AI. After thinking long and hard about where to focus, I’ve chosen Instagram as the platform to bring us together.
If you’re not already following me on Instagram, now’s the perfect time! Follow me, send me a message there, and as a thank-you, I’ll share a free download of holiday-themed Adobe Fresco sketches and some of my custom adjustments for Photoshop. But that’s not all—each month, I’ll be offering exclusive free downloads for my Instagram followers. Together, we can create a unique and inspiring art community where creativity thrives.
Let’s connect, collaborate, and build something extraordinary on Instagram!
P.S. If you missed my announcement, I’ve moved all my technology-related conversations, including tutorials, to my dedicated tech blog. Be sure to check it out for in-depth content and updates!
I’ve received so many questions from you about my experience at Adobe MAX this year, why I’m so passionate about Adobe, and how I developed my public speaking skills. In this post, I’ll do my best to answer them all!
My Experience at Adobe MAX
Speaking at Adobe MAX was my dream. The combination of Adobe MAX, Photoshop, and the Sci-Fi lab I taught made that dream come true. I cannot thank enough the two special people who supported me from our first meeting until I saw you in front of my last lab room. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.
My time at Adobe MAX was nothing short of incredible. From teaching three hands-on labs, reconnecting with old friends, and making new ones, every moment was filled with gratitude and excitement. Adobe MAX is the world’s largest creativity conference, and it was an honor to be part of such an inspiring event.
From the opening keynote on Day 1 to the inspirational keynote on Day 2, and all the creativity-boosting moments in between—like MAX Sneaks and the mind-blowing sessions—I left feeling more energized and driven than ever. MAX pushes creativity to new heights, and I walked away feeling deeply connected to this global community of creatives. It’s a powerful reminder that we are all part of something bigger, more inspiring, and filled with endless possibilities.
Why I Love Adobe So Much
At one point in my life, I was living in a country torn apart by war. My family consisted of just three women: my mother, my six-month-old daughter, and me. We faced unimaginable challenges—no food, no water, no heat during freezing winters, and no air conditioning in the scorching summer. Our biggest meal was often a single slice of bread that I would divide between my mother and my daughter.
To even get that slice of bread, I would stand in line for hours in the freezing cold. We had no water for days, so I would risk climbing to the roof of our nine-story building to gather snow, just to have something to drink. Occasionally, kind neighbors would offer us a few drops of water, which I would collect in pots to bring home. To survive the winter, we covered our windows with blankets to block out the cold wind. Although it kept us warmer, it left our apartment in darkness. On lucky evenings, if we found kerosene, we’d have light for an hour. I remember what it was like to be so hungry that I would stare at food pictures in a book, dreaming of something to eat. We burned books, shoes, and furniture just to stay warm. We lived like this for years.
Despite these terrible conditions, all I dreamed about was having a scrap of newspaper and a pencil to draw. Painting was my passion, and my soul ached for it. I didn’t have a computer, and even if I did, there was no electricity to power one. My mother sold my grandmother’s diamond ring to buy baby formula for my daughter and food. Instead of using what little was left for more food, I bought a Photoshop classroom book. Holding that book, reading it, and memorizing it from cover to cover made me feel connected to something bigger. It gave me strength.
Photoshop became a beacon of hope in a dark time. That one book helped me survive and reminded me of the creativity that still lived inside me. Adobe, and specifically Photoshop, became a lifeline for my family. I truly believe that Adobe and Photoshop are part of the reason my mother, my daughter, and I survived. I can never express enough gratitude to Adobe and Photoshop for giving me that hope.
How I Developed My Public Speaking Skills
I learned the art of public speaking from my mother. She was an incredible teacher, and from a young age, she taught me the importance of expressing myself clearly and confidently. When I present, whether on stage, in a classroom, or at a community gathering, I feel at home. Sharing my passion and knowledge with an audience brings me immense joy and makes me feel alive. There’s nothing more rewarding than connecting with others through creativity and education.
I hope this post has answered some of your questions. If you have more, don’t hesitate to ask!
If you’d like to check out my tech blog, click here.
Today marks another year since I lost my daughter to domestic violence. Another year has passed, and it has not gotten any easier. My daughter died at her own father’s hands. Her name was Mariam. All these years, I’ve blamed myself for not being able to save my baby (I know it was impossible in that situation), and I’ve been asking her for forgiveness.
But this year, I did something I haven’t been able to do for so many years. I didn’t see my baby grow up, so I painted a portrait of her as I imagined she would look now. It wasn’t easy—many emotions were involved—but I did it.
This year, I also decided to turn my pain into something positive. In the next few weeks, I will create a Facebook page for domestic violence survivors where we can all heal and see the beauty of the world through art. I will share the group with you when it will go live.
So, I am asking all of you, if you are a domestic violence survivor, to join my group. If you know someone who is, please share it with them.
Remember: Violence is NEVER OK. It’s never OK if someone apologizes after abuse saying, “I’m sorry,” “I’m sorry I was mad,” “I’m sorry, it will never happen again,” “I’m sorry, you know I love you,” or “I’m sorry, but it was your fault, you made me do this.” REMEMBER: It’s not your fault. You DON’T deserve it. You DID NOT make anyone abuse you.
Today I want to talk about a topic that is very close to me, and this topic is about who I am and what made me who I am today. I shared with you part of my life in my book, but today is more about my life after the war. My entire family (from both sides) are refugees. No one from my family was born and stayed lived at their birthplace all their lives. My entire family for three generations were fighting for their families, fighting to stay alive, and to build happy and peaceful lives for their children (including yours truly). I was a refugee/immigrant twice in my life. Twice I had to start from scratch. Twice I learned a new language. When you are learning a language from the comfort of your home – it’s nice, it’s the joy of learning something new. When you have to work to support your child and family from the first day in a new country without knowing a single word of the native language in that country – it’s stressful. Stressful because you don’t have time for a smooth transition. You don’t have time to learn because you have a child or family members you need to provide with warm clothes, food, electricity, an apartment, heat, and education. To be honest, I didn’t have the opportunity to take a single class to learn English. I learned English while working, cleaning toilets and cleaning streets. I felt, and I feel that I am the luckiest person in the world. I could work. I put a roof over my child’s head. It felt like magic (even now, after so many years). Mothers and any good human will do everything necessary to provide for their child and to survive. We all did this to the best of our abilities.
Survival has its price.
This is what I want to talk about today. I ran for my life from Baky, Azerbaijan. I did not know if I would survive. It was scary, extremely scary. I had my mother and grandmother to take care of. I was thinking only about them, how to protect them, how to keep them alive. When your survival instinct kicks in, you don’t feel panic, and you are not scared. You are just frozen, and you are surviving. At some point when Azerbaijani “people” surrounded the house and when my mom and I were hiding, I was thinking that I would show myself to them, knowing that they would torture and kill me slowly. I thought that it was ok because I would give my mom time to run. We survived, and I felt my entire life was passing as I had silence around me. I did not feel anything. I was trying to forget all that had happened. This was my mistake. When we ran from Baky, we left (as many Armenian people in Azerbaijan) everything we loved, families separated, and many lost their loved ones. My mom, grandmother, and I left practically everything, but for me leaving my easel and paint supplies was the end of my art life. I did not paint for many, many years, and for me, it was the end. In the last year and a half, we lost our auntie, my mother-in-law, and my mom. Because of COVID, I could not say goodbye to my mom and even attend her funeral. At that time, I understood that I needed help, I needed help to be able to sleep at night, I needed help to release this “survival mode.” I understood that asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of bravery. It’s OK to pause for a few minutes and take care of yourself and your mental health. Why did I decide to talk about this today? It’s simple —war in Artsakh (my nation, Armenian people of Artsakh under unprecedented war from Azerbaijan). Armenian people are still trying to survive, keeping their territory and homes. Even this week, Armenian soldiers were brutally killed by the Azerbaijan army. Azerbaijani army occupying Armenian territories, disconnecting life support such as gas and electricity). Mothers and fathers of Artsakh don’t know if their children will be alive tomorrow. The same is going on in Ukraine. Watching all of this, how refugees are trying to survive, seeing crying children, mothers, fathers, grandparents brought all my memories back. I feel the pain and horror of those people. Today, I want to ask you to help people to survive, to help people to survive not only physically (and this is a priority), but mentally as well. Don’t let them go inside “their shells,” don’t let them feel “frozen” as I felt.
Any war has only one face: the face of horror, devastation, losses, refugees running for their lives, cold, hunger, homelessness, and feeling alone.
Talk to them, hug them, tell them that they are not alone. As an artist, I know the power of art. People who are trying to survive today have nothing left. They are trying to survive. So many children (an entire generation of children) lost access to simple things such as water, food, and their home. During the horror of the war, a simple piece of paper and pencil, coloring books, and toys would make their hearts happy (even for a few minutes). They would see the light, and they would see the bright colors of childhood. It’s important. It’s important to protect the mental health of refugees right away, today, not tomorrow. So I am asking you to donate art supplies. If you are an artist, donate your artwork.
I’m very excited to announce my NEW online art store. As an artist, I create original art both digitally and traditionally every day. Many of you have asked how you can buy my original art or if I sold my art on clothing and other products? Now I do and I need your support. Please consider placing an order today for yourself or for a loved one. Thank you!
I am excited to announce the Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator Conference. On March 2nd, 2022. During this full-day conference, you will learn about getting started and easily navigating in the digital imaging world.
All classes will be accessible for up to one year to all attendees.
The full-day conference pass price is $79.99
All classes are available as stand-alone classes for $29.99 each
Let’s talk about creating unique art even if you’re not a painter. You asked me, and I heard you.So let’s get started
Navigating in the real world is difficult for everyone, but for women, it’s more difficult in many ways. People around me always tried to tell me what I should and should not do. It doesn’t matter what I did; I always heard that I did something wrong because “I am too young,” or “I am too old,” ‘I don’t smile enough,” or “I smile a lot.” As a little girl, I learned how to ignore bullies. As a teenager, I learned something new. I realized that if you are a woman, you should work three times harder than a man (doing the same job!) This is not because you are less talented than a man is. Some people and society decided and assigned a “specific place” for women to be in. I always worked three times harder than men. It’s was a priority for me to be better, to know as much as possible about my work or anything else I am doing. It was and still is important to me. As a freelancer, I know that I could not get a project just because I am a woman. Yes, it’s that simple. It’s always someone who has an opinion about what women should and should not do. It’s always someone who thinks that a “woman’s place is in the kitchen,” or a woman is not strong enough, or someone who disagrees with a woman’s outfit “it’s too short” or “it’s too long”. It’s always “something” or not enough. I spent a lot of time in my life trying to change something about me to look “more professional and be acceptable in the man dominated world.” I thought if I change my hairstyle or dress style, wear makeup, not wear makeup, or change anything else it will help me. I tried to find “that one thing” that will help people to understand that I am as smart and hard-working a professional as any man in my profession. I did not find “that one thing” for a long time. It took some time to understand that I don’t care about what society decided for me. I am not spending my time anymore to find “that one thing.” I know who I am, and I don’t need to prove it to anyone. If you ask me if everything is better now and sexism disappeared from my life? My answer is no. I still need to prove every single day that I am who I am. Sexism still exists. Some people with a twisted understanding will always try to show a woman her place. But, news flash: no woman will accept it, keep silent, or cry anymore. It’s the 21st century, and it is long overdue for the world to understand and accept that a woman is a full member of society, that women belong in the office, business, meeting, project, or any decision-making place. I decided to share this today with you, women and girls, because I want each of you to understand earlier than later that YOU ARE a full member of society. I want you to realize that you are intelligent, beautiful, strong, and can build any business you wish. You don’t have to waste YOUR time to find “that one thing.” You have “that one thing,” and it’s YOU.
Happy International Women’s Day, ladies! I wish all of you to be happy, strong, and love yourself. I love this day, and I was celebrating this day for as long as I can remember. Whether it was with greeting cards (made by myself or bought from the store), perfume, and flowers, a lot of flowers always were in the house on this day. My favorite flowers were yellow tulips. I still love them. Also, this day was associated with early spring. Today I want to share this day with you. I have news I want to share.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, I painted Frida Kahlo. Frida represents everything that I adore and respect in women. She combined a fantastic talent and beautiful artistic soul with incredible strength. She was a brilliant painter. Frida painted what she felt. She never thought about how to “fit into society,” not in her art and not based on what society believes how a woman should look. “Feet, what do I want them for if I have wings to fly.” She was a feminist, so am I.
I painted Frida many times. But I painted today’s portrait of Frida differently. I painted it in black and white (just like a picture of her that I saw). Look into her eyes, and you will see the beauty and the strength of her soul.
Painted in Adobe Fresco on Apple iPad Pro using Apple pencil.
Frida Kahlo
My other news for today, and I so proud and happy about it: Every year I mentor two girls for one year. During the year, I will build their knowledge in digital imaging. This program is free. The only requirements are: 1: a willing to learn 2: be from immigrant or minority community 3: be from a low-income family 4: have internet access I am doing this by myself, and I don’t have any support, so I can’t provide my students with the internet, iPad, or anything else. I hope one day I will be able to help with these requirements as well. P.S. If any of my readers want to help with anything, please let me know.
Now drum roll, please! I want to introduce my first student for this year – Tiffany Ferguson! She is 9 years old and a very talented girl. She loves working with Adobe Fresco, Adobe Photoshop, and traditional painting. We had our first two classes, and to be honest I am impressed with her progress and willingness to learn! I will be posting our progress every month.
Image by Renee L. Ferguson
Thank you Renee L. Ferguson for the behind the scenes images she took during our classes.
Goodbye 2020 and welcome 2021. Happy New Year, everyone. I wish you a lot of happiness, stay healthy, stay creative.
This is my first blog post in 2021. During this year, I have planned to share with you a lot of new posts, tutorials, news. But I need your help. I want to ask you to share with me what you would like to see from me in 2021. What topic(s) you are most interested in. For me, it’s important to have a two-way conversation with you. If you have a few minutes to spare, please, help me to understand what you would like to see from me, answering a few questions from the form below. Thank you in advance!
Hello everyone. Welcome to another Monday blog post day. Today I want to wish each of you Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! 2020 wasn’t the easiest year. This year was difficult for everyone. The entire world has been impacted by COVID-19. People lost their loved ones, people lost their jobs, families don’t know how they will put bread on the table. In 2020 we saw a lot of injustice. People with other than white skin tones were treated unacceptably wrong. With all these injustices, infections, cries, the hunger for many people we saw in 2020, we also saw something else. We saw that people with ALL skin tones, genders, religions were on the streets supporting Black Lives Matter. We saw so many people donating money, food to local food shelters. We saw our heroes in white uniform fitting for every single life of COVID patience. Our teachers, our heroes teaching our children via ZOOM. We saw how people come together in 2020 to support each other. This is what COVID could not take from us. This is what makes us human.
In this Holiday Season, I want to say thank YOU to my readers, my followers, my friends, and my family for being with me, for supporting me, for pushing me to dream, to be better, and simply to be who I am.
I want to wish you happiness and good health. I wish for you to be with the people you love and who love you. I wish for you to dream because if we can dream, we can create.
It was a time in my life when my daughter and I were without food. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to work. I wasn’t able to find a job anywhere. I was looking for a job all day and every day. We were able to buy a jar of pickles on sale for 85¢, and a loaf of bread also on sale for $1,07. We sliced pickles very thin to put it on top of a slice of bread. We ate it three times a day. We were happy to afford it and eat every day and to be honest, I love pickles.
It’s the Holiday season again, but this year it’s different than it used to be. The entire world is having to deal with COVID-19 this year. Every single person is affected by it in one or another way. So many people are without work, heat, or food. So many people could not put any food on the table. So many children are hungry. Together, we can help. We can help some families to put a slice of pickles on top of a slice of bread. I have created a few coloring pages for this Holiday Season. You can download them for free and use them in your traditional or digital painting. If you feel that you can spare some money to help the hungry people in Georgia, please donate anything to the Atlanta Foodbank you can (even $1 will be gladly appreciated).
