Collection: Irene Sheri - Artist

DISNEY - THE ART OF IRENE SHERI 

Irene Sheri was born in Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, Ukraine, where her passion for art began at an early age. It all started when her older brother Vasily received a set of paints for his birthday. Forbidden from using them, the paints became an object of fascination for young Irene. One day, unable to resist, she snuck them away, mixing colors and painting on paper, walls, her dress, and even on the bodies of her friends. At just four years old, she had discovered her true love for creating art.

“I am in love with my canvases,” says Irene. “It is the beauty and passion of painting and the results that come from those feelings that drive me to fill the canvas daily.”
Like her early obsession with art, Irene’s love for Disney began as a child. She strongly connected to Mickey Mouse, imagining him as another childhood friend. “It seems to me that we grew up together,” she reflects. “I believed we were peers.”
However, Disney items were rare and treasured during her youth in Russia. “When I was young, if you had a sticker with Mickey, that was considered fantastic! It was impossible to find them in our stores,” she recalls. Disney toys and stickers could only be obtained as gifts from friends or relatives who traveled abroad. Fortunately, one of Irene’s friends had a father who was a Sea Captain, and he gifted her a prized Mickey Mouse sticker from his travels—a meaningful gift for young Irene. She cherished it so much that she spent hours redrawing Mickey’s likeness. It was then that her love for art and Disney first intertwined.

Irene’s talent blossomed as she grew, and she was soon recognized as one of Russia’s most gifted young artists. Instead of attending a traditional high school, she enrolled at the Grecov College of Art in Odessa, Ukraine. By age seventeen, she was accepted into the prestigious Serov School of Fine Art in St. Petersburg, Russia, graduating as Valedictorian. She continued her studies at the world-renowned St. Petersburg Academy of Art, one of the most esteemed art institutions globally.

Irene Sheri’s award-winning fine art is celebrated in museums and galleries worldwide today. In a poetic return to her roots, she now contributes to the Disney Fine Art collection with her whimsical portraits of children immersed in joyful moments of imagination—reminiscent of her childhood friendship with Mickey Mouse.