Art as an Escape

Diana Shveyko, Owner of Design Dental Lab in Chicopee, MA, began drawing and painting a few years ago when she was going through a difficult time. “Art has really helped me,” she says. “If I have a problem or I’m in a bad mood, I take out my supplies and it helps lift my spirits.”

Shveyko uses pencils and oil and acrylic paints, and makes time to create a few times a month; faces are her favorite subjects. “When you really look at a person, you see all the details you usually never notice,” she says. “When you’re drawing the face, you figure out a lot of new things about that person.”

She mostly kept her artwork to herself until she was inspired to make her debut in Chicago at LMT’s Art in the Park.

She displayed a brightly colored, unique painting (shown below) she created in 2016. “I’d just...