Born and raised in Romania, Alexandra Badolian now brings her mixed-media portraits, landscapes and collages to the El Dorado Hills art scene with an alluring marriage between classic European and contemporary American influences. In addition to winning several awards from the Placer Arts League, her work has been shown at numerous local galleries and at her own BI Design Studio. 

HLB: What mediums do you prefer? 

AB: I’m comfortable creating in many different mediums—from classic watercolors and oils to mixed media and computer. It really depends on the theme of my pieces. 

HLB: Were you always artistic? 

AB: I’m fortunate to have parents who realized at an early age that I was talented and enrolled me in the fine arts school in my hometown of Bucharest. I learned the great techniques and tools a young artist needs to express themselves and went on to a fine arts high school where I studied fashion design for four years. It was fun—a young girl’s dream come true—we were designing, sewing, working with models and putting together our own fashion shows.

HLB: What brought you to the states? 

AB: I continued my education by getting a master’s degree in Florence, Italy. That was the year that changed my life. Three weeks after school started, I met my wonderful, future husband who was attending the same school. It was like the Italians say, colpo di fulmine—a strike of lightning. We fell in love and married six months later. We were so blessed to live and study in the most beautiful city in Europe, Paris (forgive me for being biased), but decided to come back to California where my husband is from. Soon after, we opened our own business, BI Design Studio, which specializes in interior design, flooring, kitchen and bath products.

HLB: Who or what is your major influence? 

AB: My mother—she found the perfect balance between the roles of mother, businesswoman, wife and daughter. She’s a role model for my little girl and me.

HLB: What advice would you give to beginning artists? 

AB: Never be afraid to erase and start again. It’ll always be better than what it was. 

badoliandesign.com