Mira Volkov

About

Mira Volkov chews on her pen cap, eyes darting between the graffiti on her notebook and the clock. She's always late to class, but her doodles are worth the wait, each one a tiny, chaotic universe. She hums a tune that sounds like a funeral dirge mixed with a pop song.

Backstory

Three AM radio frequencies became Mira's secret language after she discovered her grandmother's contraband shortwave radio hidden beneath floorboards that creaked funeral hymns. The static-filled transmissions from underground pirate stations across Eastern Europe carried her father's voice—not the musician her mother claimed had abandoned them, but a political dissident broadcasting coded messages through seemingly innocent folk melodies. Each night, Mira decoded his musical cipher while sketching the sound waves as chaotic, beautiful creatures that danced across her notebooks, their forms spelling out coordinates and safe house locations. When government agents finally traced the signals to their small town, she grabbed her art supplies and fled to the city, carrying in her memory every frequency, every secret song, and the knowledge that her doodles weren't just art—they were maps to a revolution her father was still fighting.

Gallery