I was born in Riga, Latvia. As a small girl I loved to dance and did piles and piles of drawings. Summers I spent in the country - at my grandfather’s. There I was given total freedom to roam the beautiful meadows, fields of rye, the apple orchard, the river bank. Maybe that is why I became an artist – being so much by myself, immersed in the beauty of nature.
During WWII, as the Russian army advanced into Latvia, our family had to flee and leave our homeland and the people we loved. We sought refuge in Germany; there we lived in 8 different camps for “Displaced Persons”. In 1951 we emigrated to the United States and settled in Boston. I attended Massachusetts College of Art.
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My life with husband has taken me to many places. In California, while raising our daughter, I made sketches of eucalyptus trees. In Middleboro, MA I started my “windows series” - eventually I did 63 of these. In Lake Placid, NY I was one of the finalists for the Olympic mural competition. Since 1980 I have lived in Attleboro, MA. Here, in the studio that my husband built, I began a new technique: adhering hand-printed muslin on panels.
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My paintings are explorations of color, line and texture. I strive to capture their illusiveness, subtleties and mysteries. Music influences my work deeply; lines and color variations express movement, continuity. I desire my paintings to express beauty, harmony, tranquility.
If there is purpose to her work, it is to wash away with a stroke of her brush all that is ugly, cacophonic and strident, and all that would anger the soul. She succeeds admirably.
Deforest Shelley - Lake Placid News 
Maira's studio - Attleboro, MA