Inna Gertsberg

Toronto illustrator Inna Gertsberg was born and raised in the former USSR, a country that today exists only in history books and people's memories. She grew up studying traditional art – watercolour, drawing, and sculpture. At age 16, Inna and her...

Toronto illustrator Inna Gertsberg was born and raised in the former USSR, a country that today exists only in history books and people's memories. She grew up studying traditional art – watercolour, drawing, and sculpture. At age 16, Inna and her family moved to the US, where she went on to graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. One day, in 2015, her two young sons were bored and asked her to draw for them. They gave her prompts and she made them monsters based on those prompts. Since then, Inna has created close to 2,000 monsters all over the world, and her ongoing project, Draw Me A Monster has received awards and recognition at home and abroad. In a way, Inna is a kind of a human AI agent, where she 'generates' art based on prompts from the audience. The result is a creation imagined by two minds, a permanent bond between the artist and the viewer. Inna lives in Toronto with her teenage sons, a dog, and a few very sneaky mice.