Victoria Darvyda Norvaisa was 13 when she first entered the United States as an immigrant from Lithuania. Her family had fled Eastern Europe after WWII. Then, in an ethnic community in Philadelphia, she drew neighborhood scenes on paper scraps while learning the customs of her new country.
In high school, her art teacher suggested that she should consider studying art as a future career, but her family was living on the edge of poverty. Art then seemed frivolous. Victoria instead concentrated on a business curriculum and at graduation was awarded a four-year scholarship to Drexel University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.
Soon she married and had four children. Unfortunately, her marriage of 30 years ended in divorce. Knowing the value of a good education, she pressed all her children to graduate from college while she returned to the workplace as an administrative assistant and later, an executive secretary.
Today, she devotes full time to creating representational and abstract works that are shown in juried exhibits. She is a member of the Visual Arts Association of the Chautauqua Institute (VACI) and a member of the Northwestern Pennsylvania Artists Association. Her novel “Desire and Red Wine, A Life’s Journey” was published in February of 2013 and is available from Amazon and other websites.