Today we’d like to introduce you to Valeriya Mushkaeva.
Hi Valeriya, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Art has always been part of who I am, but for a long time I never really believed it could become my career. I built a stable life working in dentistry, while painting and creating whenever I could on the side.
A major turning point came during COVID. I had an unexpected opportunity to be featured on TJ Lavin’s live feed, and during that conversation he told me, “You should be doing this. This is what you should be doing in life. You’re really good at this.” Hearing that from someone I respected and had watched on television for years affected me more than I expected. I had always hoped I could build something with my art, but having someone else recognize it so clearly made me start believing it too.
After that, more people began following my work and my journey, and one of my pieces even went viral. I started taking the business much more seriously, painting murals and accepting commissions under what would become SoulfulArt.
Then life shifted again. I stepped away from mural work for several years to focus on having and raising my family. When I came back to art, I came back differently. I wasn’t interested in simply picking up where I had left off. I felt like I had more to say, more life experience behind the work, and a much larger vision.
In 2026, I relaunched SoulfulArt and began pursuing mural projects again, but also started expanding beyond traditional murals into public art, sculpture, installations, immersive environments, product collaborations, and larger-scale conceptual work. A lot of my newer work combines realistic figures with cosmic landscapes, nature, movement, light, and symbolism. I’m especially interested in creating artwork that feels like there is a story happening beyond the surface.
Today, I see SoulfulArt becoming much more than a mural business. My goal is to grow it into a multidisciplinary art and fabrication studio capable of producing murals, sculpture, installations, immersive public artwork, and collaborations at a much larger scale.
I feel like I’m still at the beginning of that story — but this time I’m building it intentionally.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest challenge for me has probably been learning how to sell myself as an artist and learning the business side of the creative world. I come from an art background, so creating has always felt natural to me. What I’m still learning is everything that surrounds the art — presenting ideas, building budgets, writing proposals, understanding contracts, coordinating logistics, and communicating the value of an idea before it even exists.
There is a huge difference between creating a piece of artwork and standing in front of an entire city council and explaining why they should believe in your vision. That has pushed me outside of my comfort zone, but it has also taught me that being a professional artist requires you to become good at much more than painting. You have to be able to communicate, problem-solve and adapt constantly.
Troubleshooting has actually become a major part of what I do. Every large project brings a different surface, environment, material, installation issue or logistical challenge. As my ideas have expanded into sculpture and larger installations, I’ve also had to learn how to work with fabricators and other specialists. Right now, I outsource some of that larger fabrication because I don’t yet have the studio space or equipment to produce everything myself. Eventually, one of my biggest goals is to have a SoulfulArt studio where more of that process can happen under one roof.
Another challenge is the unpredictability of project-based work, especially while raising a family. When you submit a proposal, you may not know whether it will be selected, when it will happen, how much travel it will require, or how much time you’ll ultimately spend away from home. Then there is the opposite possibility — several projects you applied for months apart could all be selected at once. I’m learning how to plan for that uncertainty while still protecting the time that matters most to me.
I think that has been one of the biggest lessons of this stage of my career: becoming an artist professionally means learning how to build the structure around the creativity. I’m still learning that side every day, but each project makes me more confident not only in the work itself, but in my ability to bring much larger ideas to life.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a muralist, public artist, and the owner and founder of SoulfulArt. I specialize in large-scale murals, immersive public art, and concept-driven work that blends realism with surreal, cosmic, and nature-inspired elements. My work often includes human figures, Colorado landscapes, wildlife, movement, light, and celestial imagery, but the common thread is storytelling. I want people to feel something when they experience the work—not just see something beautiful.
I think my greatest strength is combining technical realism with imagination and emotion. I love taking something familiar—a person, a landscape, an animal, a building—and transforming it into something unexpected and meaningful. My goal is to create work that feels distinctive enough that someone can eventually look at it and know, “That’s a SoulfulArt piece.”
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Something that surprises people is that alongside building SoulfulArt, I’ve spent most of my professional life working in dentistry. My days can look completely different from one another—I might be in a dental office during the week, painting a massive mural at night or on the weekend, and training for endurance races in between. In 2026, I even placed in the top four of my age group in a Colorado Spartan Ultra.
I think that combination explains a lot about how I approach art. I’m extremely detail-oriented, I’m not afraid of physically demanding projects, and once I commit to something, I have a hard time giving up on it. Most people see the finished artwork, but they don’t always see how much endurance, discipline, and problem-solving are behind it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://soulfulartmurals.com
- Instagram: @soulfulart_co
