In 1994, the writer entered the Scenography department of the Latvian Academy of Arts and went to the Prague Quadrennial with coursemates and their department head Andris Freibergs in the summer of 1995. In 1999, the Latvian student exhibition received the prestigious UNESCO prize, and at the same Prague Quadrennial, the writer met American stage designer and film scenographer Tim Saternow and famous costume artist Laura Crow. The writer received an invitation to study at the University of Connecticut in the United States and went there to study in the fall of the same year. At this university, the writer learned puppetry, puppet making, direction, and mask-making.