The Birth of Something New. The Seed of Life. Canvas, acrylic
Copyright 2026, Nadezhda Dvornikova, All Rights reserved.

Russian artist Nadezhda Dvornikova, who has studied environmental design, creates gorgeous and mesmerizing paintings, many of which look like mandalas. In The Birth of Something New. The Seed of Life., we see a series of circles that overlap and encompass one another, emanating from a flower-like central image colored in a golden orange and silvery white. The circles, which are colored in an array of blues, teals, whites, and silvers are calming to look at and allow the viewers’ eyes to be both drawn to the center and attracted to the multiple layers of smooth roundness.

For those who are pregnant, the image is helpful, in part because it is calming but also because the circular shapes and central flower image elicit a feeling of dilation. Visualizing Birth has previously discussed how these types of images can be very powerful and helpful during late pregnancy and even during labor itself. During my second pregnancy, a series of blooming flower images produced by David Bookbinder ended up being very helpful to me in a very similar way when I was actually in labor (see Blooming Flower Visualizations from 2011)