Aleksandra (Sasha) Zabaluev was born in the city of Rostov-on-Don in 1986. From the age of 3 she could spend hours with a brush and paints and didn’t notice anything around her. She was being suspected of autism until the age of 3. Because she was capable of doing difficult things and at the same time easy operations was hard for her.
Then studying in secondary school she took part in the city art competitions. Her childhood drawings were partly kept by her parents. In high school, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“Later my mom told me that she had been terrified of my state. But my dad told her: “Don’t worry! She just sees the world differently””.
Soon after that she was treated in a children’s psychoneurological dispensary at the age of 14. She made some drawings on her skin with sharp objects. These drawings were the reason why the school psychologist drew attention to her mental health.
She studied at to universities at the same time. In 2011 she graduated from the Academy of Architecture and Art with a degree in Painting.
In 2012 she graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and she got a master degree in History of Philosophy. The same year she moved to Moscow.
For several years she lived in Bryusov lane, the place where a lot of famous artists lived in the past. And now many artists are living there.
During that period she was creating ideologies for public, educational and commercial projects. She worked as an executive editor for the magazine of the American Studies “Terra America” from 2011 until its closure in 2015. This magazine published interviews with well-known people such as a famous American-Israeli military strategist Edward Nicolae Luttwak, an editor-in-chief of Real Clear Religion Jeremy Lott, a Professor of sociology and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Saskia Sassen. Professor Sassen owns the concept of a "global city".
In the summer of 2019 her mental state got worse again. For several months she was in depression. This state was further aggravated by the fact that it was necessary to find a method of treatment which can allow her to continue working. Finally she turned to Lacanian psychoanalysis. She has already been going through personal therapy by this method for a year.
In the spring of 2020 her mental state returned to normal and Alexandra was able to return to a normal life and to start painting again. Painting became a real way out for her especially because of the pandemic situation and the forced stay at home for 3 months. It became the way to talk to herself and the way to accumulate energy which was tearing her apart inside.
