Ormanzhi works out of studio Number Five upstairs in the ARTHOUSE building on R Street

By Ken Magri

“I like the terms ‘imaginative realism’ or ‘magical realism,’ though for simplicity’s sake I usually refer to myself as a ‘surrealist.’” 

That’s how Sacramento artist Diana Ormanzhi describes her painting style, which places sharply rendered objects into unusual dreamlike environments. In the last five years, after losing much of her art to a house fire, Ormanzhi has assembled an impressive body of work that will be on display at her R Street studio this month as part of the Sacramento Open Studios tour, organized by Verge Center for the Arts.

“People often ask me if my paintings are inspired by my dreams, but no, my dreams are actually quite mundane,” Ormanzhi says. “However, I’ve always been quite the daydreamer and draw lots of inspiration from storytelling, creative writing, imaginative worldbuilding and my surroundings, especially in nature.”

Her images can be especially striking when she exploits the 20th century surrealist trick of curious juxtaposition, which is the odd or unexplainable arrangement of objects in a composition. Ormanzhi’s scenes might depict an octopus holding up a lantern, a man turning into a tree, or a mushroom figure fishing at a stream. By bringing her own visual language to the canvas she pays homage to surrealism. 

Ormanzhi was born a year after her parents immigrated to the United States from Ukraine and Moldova. She started making art at a young age, but got serious about working with colored pencils while attending George Washington Carver School of Arts and Sciences, a public Waldorf school in Rancho Cordova. She also took a job at a local art supply store to learn more and qualify for the employee discount.

After graduating in 2015, Ormanzhi enrolled at American River College to take studio art, art history and gallery management courses. That’s when she decided to teach herself how to paint in oils, a difficult medium to master. “I wasn’t good at painting for quite some time,” she says.

But she trusted her basic skills as an artist and eventually felt more confident. “I was finally starting to feel like I could express my creative ideas with the skills I built up,” Ormanzhi says. That’s when she developed a signature style.

Her scenes are often set in the night: and this is by design. The young painter lost her studio — and most of her artwork — in 2019 when her family’s house burned down, and the loss cast a shadow on future pieces. 

Ormanzhi was traumatized about losing everything, “I was certain that I wouldn’t make art again.” But those feelings faded and she began rebuilding her portfolio. “My backgrounds turned to gloomy nature-scapes for a long time,” Ormanzhi says. “I think that’s how I was subconsciously dealing with what had happened.” 

Now some of her favorite paintings go back to that first year after the fire.

Eventually the stormy backgrounds evolved into striking sunset colors. Now she experiments with single hues to augment her grays and whites, feeling that it helps the foreground subject matter stand out more. “I love picking a background setting for my paintings,” Ormanzhi says. “I think it serves as an incredibly effective storytelling device and can completely change how your subject is perceived.”

By 2020, Ormanzhi had accomplished all she needed to at ARC, earning an associate degree in art and a certificate in gallery management. “The gallery management classes were easily some of my favorites,” she said. “They taught me tangible skills that helped me succeed as an artist outside of school.” 

But the pandemic shut down college campuses everywhere, putting a halt to her plans to transfer to a four-year university. 

In the meantime, Ormanzhi was able to rent an upstairs studio space at ARTHOUSE, a gallery and studio complex on R Street. By making prints and stickers of her paintings — and renting booths at conventions like SacAnime — Ormanzhi has found success selling her art at home and in the Bay Area. “Now I’m doing what I would’ve wanted to do after graduating without any of the [college] debt,” she says.

Certain themes repeat themselves in Ormanzhi’s work, like her use of mushrooms. In “Sentient Shrooms, Spa Day” a trio of fungi relax in a warm bowl of ramen without realizing they will soon be the evening’s dinner. But in “Sentient Shrooms, the Adventurer” a mushroom whose cap has turned into a frog stands near a stream of lily pads. The title and the knapsack over its shoulder suggest that a great journey is about to begin.

Other paintings reference the idea of metamorphosis. In “Growth Spurt” a nude male turns into a tree as leaves emerge around him. In “Illusion of Sanctuary,” a Daphne-esque woman evolves into a tree while standing near a grassy stream and playing with a long necklace chain. Despite the references to Greek mythology, the scene looks contemporary and suggests alternative narratives. 

Ormanzhi says the compositions in her paintings are heavily planned out, but she becomes more intuitive with her use of color. “The nice thing about oil paintings is that if I hate how something looks, I can wipe it away and restart,” she says. “So sometimes the colors change as the artwork progresses.” 

Ormanzhi has collected a wide array of paint colors while employed at the art supply store, where she still works part-time. “I know limited color palettes are the ‘correct’ way you’re taught to paint,” she says, “but I can’t help but experiment with the vast array of contemporary pigments we are fortunate to have access to.”

On Sept. 12 from 6-9 p.m., Ormanzhi will showcase her art prints and stickers at Crocker-Con, a trade event at the Crocker Art Museum blending contemporary art sales and comic book culture with workshops, interactive exhibits and live music.

Sept. 14-15, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Ormanzhi will participate in Sacramento Open Studios, where the public can visit local artists in their workspaces. There are 144 artists signed up to participate in this year’s tours, according to Verge Center for the Arts. The studio tours are free and open to the public.

“It’s an amazing time to see a variety of art and actually talk to the artists on the spot,” Ormanzhi says. “No photo can compare to seeing artwork in person and I love getting live feedback from visitors.” 

This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19.