Ever since she was a small child, Izabella Orzelski has made the human form the principal subject of her sketches. Her mother still treasures her childhood drawings that captured family members, neighbors, fairy tale character, etc. Growing up didn’t change her keen interest in art and love for figure drawing. In 1998, Iza’s dream of becoming a professional figure painter came closer to reality when she earned her MFA Degree from the Graduate School of Figurative Art at the New York Academy of Art. Significant recognition of her status as a professional figure painter came that same year when she received the First Annual Award for Fine Art from the Dahesh Museum in New York.
Iza later left New York and returned to her hometown, Edmonton, Canada, where she diligently pursued her artistic career and eventually met her soul mate and husband, Bogdan Konikowski – a fellow artist.