About Yana

An artist who combined ancient folk amulets, symbols and signs, spiritual searches and her own creative energy into a holistic art that heals the soul.

Yana Dereza was born on August 6, 1996 in Kyiv and she grew up in the atmosphere of sewing creativity, which was practiced by women in her family all the way back to the fourth generation. From an early age, Yana was interested in drawing, painting, embroidery, beadwork, and various aesthetic handicrafts.
Studying in the gymnasium of oriental languages, evening handicraft and painting classes became a real oasis of peace in the middle of a difficult childhood, in which there was a strong pressure on the child's psyche from the family and society at the same time. For a sensitive child, various psychological traumas became a source of creativity, in which her talents were revealed in a unique way. In adulthood, the artist will realize that the evolution of her art is the evolution of her own self-healing.

While studying at the art academy in 2014, Yana saw for the first time a doll that her friend brought to a seminar on ethnography of Ukraine. That same night Yana created her first red poppy-colored "Motanka" doll filled with sage. From that moment began a long road of experiments and a combination of all those areas of creativity that Yana loved so much. The dolls turned out to be unique and unlike any others, so immediately there were people who wanted to order them.

Yana is a professional art restorer and inthis job she was inspired by ancient paintings, icons, objects of decorative and applied art. Yana admired different cultures of the world, and especially Ukrainian, and worked to preserve them and reproduce the most beautiful moments in her own interpretation.

Through creativity and communication withpeople, Yana explores the depths of her psyche and that of other people, andthe main idea in the world structure is that on a spiritual level we are all interconnected. We are a manifestation of divine energy, and thanks tointerpersonal interactions and gaining new experience, our authentic "self", the higher consciousness knows itself and the world inevitably becomes better.

Yana believes in the healing power of art, which comes from an inner impulse of the nuclear clot of the soul. She explains the manifestations of life in a metaphysical sense. The artist's creativity is a bridge to health.

A full-scale war in February 2022 became a starting point of a new life. There was a rethinking of values and one's true purpose. Yana left her home, her country, and ended up in Prague with two backpacks of warm clothes. It was mentally and physically the most difficult period in her life, but it also became a rebirth.
From the past life, there remained a strong desire to create dolls but in a renewed vision, to show the world as much Ukrainian identity as possible and to discover new facets of one's own talent.
From this period, Yana finally decided to devote herself to creativity and became a full-time artist, whose works were in high demand and their value increased. Now Yana is a trendsetter in the field of Ukrainian dolls with many followers of her style.

"I believe that after contact with an artist, you can live forever, in another dimension - in a work of art."

"I believe if we do what we love, the universe supports us in this."

"I believe in identity and that a person is capable of incredible things with deep trust in oneself."

"I believe in symbols and clues around."

"I believe in love, without which neither creativity nor even life has any meaning."

"I believe that I can create my own path,and not follow the safe path that has been trodden a thousand times."

"I believe that answers to all the questions should be sought within."

"I believe that every person is a light that needs to remember, find and love its own glow."

"I am interested in the nature of things."

"I feel people and reflect the most beautiful things in them."

"I know that the material form of reflection of my world view is my art.”