PRESS FEATURE
Featured in Psychology Today — Fresh Start Issue (2026)
A reflection on reinvention, uncertainty, identity transition, and beginning again through painting.
May 2026
Psychology Today, New York
In May 2026, Psychology Today included Yuliya Vladkovska in its “Fresh Start” issue dedicated to reinvention, learning, and identity transition.
The feature focused on returning to education at midlife, entering Accademia Carrara in Bergamo to pursue an MFA in painting, and navigating the uncertainty of becoming a beginner again after years of professional experience.
Painting became another way of working with perception, ambiguity, structure, and attention.
EDITORIAL MATERIALS FROM THE PSYCHOLOGY TODAY “FRESH START” ISSUE
article cover
Linkedin post
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Beginning Again
Entering an MFA program at 45 meant stepping back into uncertainty, critique, experimentation, and visible incompleteness.
Rather than treating painting as self-expression alone, Vladkovska approaches it as a system of perception — exploring how repetition, modular structures, and everyday objects shape attention and meaning.
Her practice draws from backgrounds in mathematics, enterprise technology, and contemporary painting.
SELECTED WORKS
After HB
PRE-CONDITIONS
POINT OF REFERENCE
HARMLESS DEPENDENCIES
OIL ON linen
150 × 100 CM
2026
OIL ON LINEN
150 × 100 CM
2026
OIL ON LINEN
150 × 100 CM
2026
OIL ON LINEN
150 × 100 CM
2026
Starting over was not the hardest part.
Letting go of the identity built around competence was.
— Yuliya Vladkovska
Behind the scenes from the Psychology Today "Fresh Start" issue photo shoot, May 2026