Victoria Kitanov Last year I said “YES!” to the Universe, took a leap of faith and committed to working for myself as a fulltime Artist. A creative business is a continual and frequently steep learning curve, and I can’t say it’s all been plain sailing, but it is fulfilling to follow my heart, soul and passion as a visual storyteller. My creative career began in the early 1980s as a commercial artist and children’s book illustrator, and these roots are still evident in my artwork today. In my lifetime, I’ve been employed in many fields, including library, information and archival practice, but my creative direction toward marine art comes from the many years I worked for the Royal Australian Navy and the Navy’s Heritage Collection. I only wish I had another lifetime to capture the sights, sounds and stories that surround the world’s working harbours and waterways. And through this lens, I have also come to appreciate the vanishing maritime heritage of my own city of Sydney, Australia.