Dasha Gorin found: Crayola is uniting Oak Ridge third grader's art with her adult self

Dasha has been found. She's Dasha Gorin, by the way.

On July 17, The Oak Ridger published a story to its website, oakridger.com, asking for readers' help in identifying a Linden Elementary School third-grader who had painted a piece of artwork titled, "Jade the Bird Ate Two Dozen Shrimp" as part of Crayola’s Dream Makers program. Crayola had sent The Oak Ridger an image of the artwork that was featured on a billboard in New York City's Times Square as they sought Dasha's identity, along with that of other creators of artwork from years past that had been kept at the company's headquarters.

The information stated that Dasha with no-last-name-given created the artwork in 1996 at Linden.

Uh, not exactly. She was born in 1996.

The 28-year-old Oak Ridge High School graduate is now living in Los Angeles.

"It's so surreal," she said of Crayola trying to get ahold of her and the roundabout way she was found.

Within hours after the story was published online, her father, Oak Ridge resident Andrey Gorin, contacted The Oak Ridger. Days later, her former Linden art teacher, Carolyn Skeen, also emailed the newspaper. It turns out that Dasha's mother, Tamah Fridman - now living in New York to work at a new job - had already contacted her daughter after news of the search was published on another media website.

Dasha said she got in touch with Crayola and has been told her original artwork will be mailed to her, which has been confirmed by a Crayola representative.

The 28-year-old works in research operations with a company called Infillion. She's also a part-time student at the University of California at Los Angeles' Anderson School of Management, working on a master's degree in business management.

Dasha said the work she does at Infillion includes overseeing market research initiatives, analyzing advertising campaigns and audience profiling. Among Infillion's ads are stadium ads and online advertising that is interactive, almost like video games.

You can also find a mini-biography of Dasha on Internet Movie Database, which compiles information on the television and movie industry. Her biography tells how she graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in radio/television/film and "spent just over a year continuing to work and produce films in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles. Her film project, "Tahara," debuted at the Slamdance Film Festival 2020, was screened worldwide, and received a U.S. Narrative Special Mention from the Grand Jury at Outfest.

Asked if movie producing is in her future, Dasha said she'd "never close the door completely" on that profession, but there is "so much uncertainty" in the entertainment field and factors such as artificial intelligence and the streaming adding to the instability. Examples of her movies can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/304368907.

Her third-grade artwork and making movies at ORHS

Dasha remembers well her third-grade artwork, "Jade the Bird Ate Two Dozen Shrimp." She said teacher Skeen didn't let on to the whole class how their works had done in the competition. "One day she pulled me aside," and told her that her artwork has been chosen, Dasha said.

"It was charming, imaginative and skillful," Skeen said in an email to The Oak Ridger. "And I do remember how pleased she was with her work.

"The painting was sent to Crayola with parent permission. It was selected for the 2005 Crayola Dream-Makers Exhibition. I found the 2005 Crayola Dream-Makers catalog with all of the participants (and their first and last names!). The exhibit was held at the State Theatre for the Arts in Easton, Pennsylvania," Skeen said.

She noted that Dasha's third-grade teacher, Dorcus McBrayer, remembers her young student, too.

"They (Crayola) sent me a lovely little placard," which was a copy of her artwork and is probably the copy that her dad said is still on his wall, Dasha said.

Dasha's family includes her parents, younger sister, Nicolle Gorin, and older brother, Max Fridman, who died in 2019.

She got the film bug early.

"I totally credit my high school French teachers Leah Bailey and Elizabeth Barry for getting me interested in film. I'm not 100% sure if they are still teaching at ORHS, but they were wonderful," she said later in an email after the phone interview.

She said the teachers would allow the students to demonstrate what they'd learned in a form they chose - like film.

"I started getting together with my friends making movies," she said. Dasha remembered doing a "Harry Potter" spoof, and movies involving or inspired by Joan of Arc, Don Quixote, "Les Miserables" and Voltaire's "Candide."

Dasha traveled to Los Angeles her senior year, having been accepted into a program at the University of Southern California that allowed 12 to 15 students start college after their junior year of high school. The then-17-year-old quit the program after completing the first semester and came back to Oak Ridge, where she worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for six months. She walked across the stage to accept her diploma with the rest of her Oak Ridge High School classmates in spring 2013 and went on to Northwestern University.

Crayola opened its children’s art archives as part of its new Campaign for Creativity in hopes of creating a new dialogue about the importance of childhood creativity. The search for Dasha and other student artists from years past is part of that campaign.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel's Hayden Dunbar contributed to this story.

The Oak Ridger's News Editor Donna Smith covers Oak Ridge area news. Email her at dsmith@oakridger.com and follow her on Twitter@ridgernewsed.

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This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Crayola is uniting Oak Ridge third grader's art with her adult self