Where Art Meets Design: An Evening at Cabot House

April 9, 2026 · LEE COLLECTION at Cabot House · Needham, Massachusetts

When art and design share the same room, something magical happens. The room stops being a room. It becomes a composition — a quiet conversation between texture, color, light, and silence.

On the evening of April 9, I had the privilege of presenting my original collection at the LEE COLLECTION showroom inside Cabot House — one of New England's most respected destinations for fine furniture and interior design. Over twenty paintings, including several of my round oil works, were welcomed into a space that already understands what it means to live beautifully.

It was an evening I will not soon forget.

A Thank You That Begins the Story

Before I tell you what happened, I want to begin where every story should begin — with gratitude.

To Mark Walter, publisher of Dover Stroll, whose deep care for local businesses and local artists is the reason so many of us in this community ever get to meet. Mark builds bridges with quiet generosity. It was at one of his events that I first met Christy West, whose warmth and curiosity opened the door that led, eventually, to this evening.

And to Irina Yeliseeva, who welcomed my work into the elegant LEE COLLECTION showroom with grace and conviction — thank you for seeing what was possible here. The careful arrangement of the paintings throughout the space was no accident; it was an act of design intuition that allowed each work to breathe.

Art as the Emotional Anchor of a Room

I shared a thought with the designers and Cabot ownership that I want to share here too:

Art is often called the last decision in interior design. I believe it is the first.

When a designer begins with art, they are not decorating — they are composing. The painting sets the emotional frequency of the room. The furniture, the lighting, the textures, the negative space — all of it organizes itself around that frequency. A room composed this way feels alive. A room composed without it feels assembled.

This is what my paintings are made to do. They are not accessories. They are emotional anchors — what I call energy portals. They are made to elevate the spaces they enter, and to elevate the people who live in those spaces.

The Round Paintings

One of the most beautiful surprises of the evening was watching designers respond to the round oil paintings. There is something about a circle in a rectangular world — it pulls the eye in and refuses to let it escape. Where a square painting offers a window, a circle offers a threshold.

Several designers spoke about the way a round work transforms a hallway, a bedroom over the headboard, a quiet corner above a console. Others spoke about pairs and triptychs of round works — a possibility I am very much exploring in the studio now.

Healing, Not Decoration

My motto — I Create Art That Heals™ — sits at the heart of everything I do. It is not a marketing line. It is the truth of how the work is made.

I paint intuitively. No predetermined sketches. No fixed palette. The painting tells me when it is finished. When it is right, I embed semiprecious stones — amber, malachite, amethyst — each chosen for its energetic resonance with the work it joins.

The result, collectors and designers tell me, is a painting that does something to a room. Light feels softer. Conversations feel deeper. The space holds you a little more gently.

That is the work. That is what I came to share at Cabot House.

A Community of Design

What made the evening unforgettable was not only the art — it was the people. Designers from across the region. The IFDA community. The Cabot ownership and team, whose hospitality set the tone for the entire evening. The grazing table from a local caterer that was a small work of art in itself. The hum of conversation about color, scale, sourcing, light, and the role of art in residential and hospitality spaces.

It is rare to spend an evening in a room where everyone present cares deeply about the same thing: making spaces that feel like home, in the truest sense of that word.

With Gratitude

Thank you to Cabot House and the entire LEE COLLECTION team. Thank you to Irina Yeliseeva for her vision in arranging the paintings throughout the showroom. Thank you to Mark Walter and Dover Stroll for the recognition and the friendship. Thank you to Christy West and to every designer, collector, and friend who came out on a Wednesday evening to share in this moment with me.

If you are a designer, art consultant, or collector who would like to view available works — including the round oils now in progress — I welcome private studio visits and virtual tours by appointment.

Write to me at igorbman@gmail.com or call 508-494-9772.

The studio is open. The conversation continues.

With deep gratitude, Irina

Irina Gorbman is a Moscow-born, Dover-based abstract intuitive oil painter and self-taught outsider artist. She creates Art That Heals™ — meditative, gestural paintings often embedded with semiprecious stones — for collectors, designers, and healing environments worldwide. Her work has been exhibited at the AD Design Show NYC, Boston International Fine Art Show, the Sheen Center NYC, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and London Fashion Week.

igorbman.com · igorbman@gmail.com · 508-494-9772