Can Ikebana Be a Language Beyond Flowers?

For the Women in Arts Network website, we sat down with Marina Sholkova, a multidisciplinary artist who works across painting, botanical sculpture, ikebana, and illustration. In this interview, she guides us through how a single symbol or idea can become the starting point for very different works, why she chooses a particular medium to convey a concept, and how studying ikebana with a Japanese teacher has reshaped her sense of space, balance, and silence in composition.

Marina shares concrete stories from her studio and studio-to-stage life: how a projected silhouette grew into the painting Italian Girl and opened a conversation about cultural change; how a month-long daily drawing project became a 27-piece Inktober narrative that taught her the value of steady practice; and how public projects like Expometro Barcelona changed the way people encounter her work. She also describes earning a Beginner Certificate in Ikebana in July 2025 after 20 lessons, exhibiting in Russia, Belgium, Spain and online, and winning recognition in several competitions, including Inktober 2024 and the Golden Time Talent awards.

What we learn from this conversation is practical and immediate: listen to the idea first and let the medium follow; use space as a compositional partner; expect different responses from online and in-person displays; and let disciplined making (daily practice, limits, constraints) open up fresh choices rather than close them down. Read on for a whole conversation with Marina, a thoughtful guide to working with nature, symbol, and form across several visual languages.

Marina Sholkova is a multidisciplinary artist whose creative journey spans painting, botanical sculpture, illustration, and the Japanese art of ikebana. Her work is inspired by the quiet poetry of nature and the hidden depths of the human soul. Graduating from art school in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in 2003, Marina’s path has taken her through exhibitions in Russia, Belgium, Spain, and online international showcases. Her art has been featured in ArtistCloseUp magazine, Holy Art Magazine, and multiple curated group shows.

She is a four-time third-place winner at London’s Golden Time Talent competition (2023 and 2025) and the winner of Inktober 2024 with a series of 27 illustrations. Her ikebana compositions, exhibited three times in Belgium, reflect her deep engagement with Japanese culture — a passion also visible in her symbolic paintings. In July 2025, Marina received her Beginner Certificate in Ikebana after studying under a Japanese teacher for 20 lessons. Each piece she creates carries a concept at its heart, blending visual simplicity with layers of meaning.

1. Your work moves between painting, ikebana, botanical sculpture, and illustration. How do you decide which medium will best carry an idea you want to explore?    

For me, the choice of medium grows naturally out of the concept I want to express. Each idea carries its own “voice,” and I try to listen to it carefully before deciding how it should manifest. If the theme is rooted in symbolism or colour relationships, painting often becomes the most direct way to explore it. When the idea is tied to impermanence, seasonality, or the subtle poetry of space, ikebana feels like the correct language. Botanical sculpture allows me to build narratives through form and texture, while illustration gives me the freedom to distil a concept into a more graphic or narrative expression. In every case, I choose the medium that allows the concept’s essence to emerge with clarity and emotional resonance.

Winning Inktober 2024 with 27 illustrations taught me that creativity thrives when it meets discipline.

Marina Sholkova

2. You’ve studied ikebana with a Japanese teacher and exhibited in several countries. How have these cultural experiences shaped the way you approach composition and symbolism in your work?  

Learning ikebana from a Japanese teacher profoundly changed the way I see space, balance, and the dialogue between objects. In ikebana, what is left empty is as important as what is present, and that awareness has carried over into all my work. My international exhibition experiences have also deepened my sensitivity to how different cultures read symbols and visual cues. Presenting my art in various countries has shown me that while symbols can be universal, their emotional weight can shift depending on context. This has inspired me to create works that weave together threads of cultural identity—blending visual languages so they speak across borders while still holding the essence of their origins.

3.  Many of your pieces start from a single symbol or concept. Can you walk us through an example of how one small idea grew into a finished work?   

One example is my painting of an Italian Girl. It began almost as a game—experimenting with light and shadow. I projected my own silhouette onto the canvas, playing with the idea of a self-portrait. From there, the concept deepened into a reflection on cultural identity, particularly in the context of mixed couples. I imagined a Russian woman—like myself—wearing a headscarf, her dark silhouette hinting at inner transformation. The patterns on her clothing were also designed as a nod to the cultural shifts that come with love, language, and immersion in a new way of life. What started as a fleeting shadow evolved into a layered story of belonging, adaptation, and the way personal identity can transform through connection.

4.   Nature seems to play a central role in your creative process. What aspects of it draw you in the most when you begin a new piece?    

Nature has always been both my muse and my collaborator. It offers endless lessons in harmony, impermanence, and transformation, themes that run through much of my work. I’m fascinated by its ability to be both fragile and resilient, to hold beauty in every stage from blooming to decay. This is especially true in my ikebana and botanical sculptures, where I work directly with natural forms, embracing their asymmetry and ephemeral qualities. In ikebana, every stem, leaf, and space becomes part of the composition, teaching me to see beauty not only in perfection but also in imperfection and transience. These practices deepen my connection to nature and enable me to convey its peacefulness and poetry through all my artistic media.

For me, the choice of medium grows naturally out of the concept I want to express. Each idea carries its own voice, and I try to listen to it carefully before deciding how it should manifest.

Marina Sholkova

5.   You’ve been part of both in-person and online international exhibitions. How do these different settings change the way your work is received or experienced?  

In-person exhibitions enable the audience to experience the physicality of my work — its texture, scale, and subtle details that often don’t translate well in photographs. People can walk around a piece, see how light interacts with its surface, and feel its presence in space, which often deepens the emotional connection. Online exhibitions, on the other hand, open my work to a much broader audience across borders. They create opportunities for discovery by people who might never visit the physical gallery. While the tactile experience is lost, the digital format often encourages more focused storytelling through images, close-up details, and written context.

After participating in many different exhibitions, I’ve learned how much I value direct contact with the audience. This can happen digitally — when viewers share their impressions — but more importantly, through face-to-face conversations in offline settings. A particularly memorable experience for me was Expometro Barcelona, where the art was placed in a public space and became accessible to a broad, diverse audience. The project also offered exceptional visibility through various social media channels, creating a vibrant dialogue around the work.

6. Winning Inktober 2024 with 27 illustrations is a big achievement. What did that challenge teach you about consistency and creativity?  

Winning Inktober 2024 with 27 illustrations taught me that creativity thrives when it meets discipline. I chose to tell a continuous story about a boy and his dog, which meant I had to come up with a fresh scene involving them every single day. This narrative thread was both a challenge and a gift — it pushed me to think more inventively about composition and emotion, and it made my illustrations stand out among others in the challenge. Working daily also helped me let go of perfectionism, trust the process, and see how consistency builds momentum. Over time, each drawing became a stepping stone for the next, and the series developed its own rhythm and voice.

Marina Sholkova’s work brings together painting, ikebana, botanical sculpture, and illustration, always guided by a single idea or symbol that she allows to grow into something larger. Her practice demonstrates how art can be both disciplined and open, rooted in cultural experiences yet able to transcend borders through a shared visual language.

From ikebana lessons that changed the way she sees space, to international exhibitions that tested how audiences respond in different settings, her journey highlights the value of listening closely to ideas and letting them find the form they need. What we learn from her story is the importance of patience, consistency, and curiosity, qualities that enable her to translate nature, culture, and imagination into thoughtful work that invites us to pause and look again.

To learn more about Marina, visit the links below.