Sandra Neva Schulze was born and raised in Bargteheide, Germany – a small town near Hamburg.
From a very early age she gravitated to art and design in all of its many forms. Art & Music were the
main topics she was interested in during school years and designing the town’s movie theatre program
was her first official job at age 15. She was later accepted at the “School for Art and Design” in Hamburg
at which she graduated successfully. With this education in her pocket, she set out to put theory into
practice and began an apprenticeship in retail display design and interior design at Karstadt Mo a large
company’s flagship store in Hamburg.

Sandra next studied at the “ College for Fine Art and Design” and upon graduation began working in
various fields of design. This led to positions as interior designer, photo production coordinator, film
production coordinator and web and graphic designer in Hamburg, Wiesbaden, New York City and
Connecticut. During her years as a designer, she continued to pursue her interest in fine art by painting
large mixed media works that became much sought after collector’s pieces in her native Germany.

After her first child was born in 2007 Sandra opened Neva Paintings and began experimenting with a
new portraiture technique that mixes computer generated graphic design with photography, collage and
acrylic painting. She started out with children as her main subjects but the outcome of the 2008
presidential election and her imminent swearing in as a US citizen inspired her to take on her first adult
subject, Barack Obama and start her “Political, Celebrity and Cultural Storyteller’s Series”. The Obama
portrait was exhibited during the inauguration and widely hailed in local NYC area press.
It is currently exhibited at corporate offices in Norwalk, CT. The series also includes Oprah Winfrey as
never imagined before and the inspirational, “A dream for the children of Ethiopia”.

Aiming to help her adopted home, local community and children’s causes, Sandra also recently won the
“Bring Your Own Bag” design contest in Westport, Connecticut. – a design event to commemorate the
historic banning of plastic bags from all retail stores throughout the town. Through a separate venture,
her design and production studio, StellaLulu Studio, Inc. she is also currently developing a travel
focused children’s book and TV show. The studio also dedicates pro-bono design work to local
businesses and charities such as the “United Foundation for the Future of Kids” in Chicago.