128 BAL HARBOUR
BEAUTY IN THE MUNDANE
Bal Harbour Shops Creative Challenge winner Victoria Tentler-Krylov
adds joy to familiar scenes with her wild and whimsical illustrations.
BY MARIA VOGEL
LOOKING AT Victoria Tentler-Krylov's
vast illustration portfolio, you would
think that the Russian-born, New
York-based artist fell into the field
naturally. However, Tentler-Krylov's
professional journey began in a
different creative arena: architecture.
It seems as though dreaming up
three-dimensional spaces and
dreaming up illustrative worlds are
not so far off from one another. Here,
we speak to the artist—and winner of
the BHS Creative Challenge—about
her creative journey and the artistic
through lines of her life.
What was your road into entering
creative fields? I have been drawing and
painting since age two! My favorite thing
to do as a child was to read picture books
and then draw my own versions of the
illustrations.
How did illustration become a part of
your professional life? I loved my career
in architecture but continued to draw and
invent picture book ideas, and eventually
got an agent and contracts with publishers.
I saw this as my opportunity to switch gears
and focus on illustration full-time.
After I began working on picture books,
