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Biography:
Valentina Rapetskaya was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1944. She was always drawn to art, receiving her first lessons from her artist father, Limpan Abramovich Moroz. Despite the rough post-war times, her parents took summer vacations in the Baltics and the Ukraine. There she learned a lot from another fantastic artist, a member of the Artist Society of the USSR, and a dear family friend, Mikhail Yakovlevich Pesin. Under his tutelage she began to seriously study pencil and chalk techniques, making her first sketches from life and nature.
She could have applied to the Leningrad Art Academy, but she dreamt of becoming a fashion designer and she graduated from college in 1964. She dedicated the next forty years to this career. In 1989, Valentina relocated to the USA, and continued working. Her abilities were quickly recognized at renowned boutiques, such as Henry Bendel and Chanel. Eventually, she started her own designer label, Tina Moro.
Since 2012, Valentina lives in Florida. It was here that she returned to her early roots. Today, she is known as a frequent exhibitor, a pastel artist with a great sense of composition, color and tone, capable of conveying mood and character of her subjects.
She works a lot towards perfecting her style, aiming to tap into and refine the skills she honed so many years ago. In her drawings, innovation and a traditional academic style of the Soviet 1950s live side by side, giving her work a unique look.
Artist Statement:
"I began to draw as a way to pass the time, solely for my own pleasure. On occasion, I gave drawings away to friends, relatives, acquaintances. In time, slowly, people inquired about purchasing, I got invitations to exhibit and somehow things took off...
Today I draw a lot, and with great pleasure. I am often asked how I chose the name "Tina Moro." When I established my own women's clothing line, I needed to choose a catchy, easy to recall name for my brand. Tina came from my first name, Valentina, and Moro came from my maiden name, Moroz."
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