Growing up, Sorina Szakacs spent a lot of time watching planes fly away at an airfield in Romania. One day she would leave in one of those airplanes and arrive to the United States, a dream she had since she was a little girl.

 “My dad used to take me with him to the airfield. He works in aviation and to keep me busy and away from all the aircraft, he used to give me small pieces of chalk and make me draw. He taught me how to make a duck out of the number two or a bunny out of a number three.”

Now living in Los Angeles, Sorina still draws, but she no longer uses chalk. She painted her first canvas in the United States in 2009, inspired by the weather in the many U.S. cities she has lived in.