Where Art First Took Root

Desta Hagos was born in Adwa, Tigray, within the compound of Queen Sheba School, where her father worked as a caretaker.

As a young girl, Desta was fascinated by flowers. She would pick the ones that caught her eye and bring them home with her. Seeing this, her father gently encouraged her to stop cutting them.

“Paint them instead. When you pick the flowers, you kill them.”

It was a simple suggestion, but one that would stay with her. Desta began drawing and painting the flowers she loved rather than picking them—and in those early encounters with nature, a lifelong passion for art began.

The First Recognition

Desta's early education took her to Etege Menen School in Addis Ababa, where she studied from second through eighth grade.

Founded by Empress Menen as Ethiopia's pioneering all-girls school, Etege Menen represented a remarkable idea for its time: that Ethiopian girls deserved access to modern education and the opportunity to develop their talents. Girls from different parts of the country lived and learned together in an environment that encouraged education, independence and achievement.

For Desta, it was also where her childhood love of drawing received its first important recognition. In fifth grade, her art teacher saw something special in her work and submitted one of her paintings to an art competition in India.

She won.

The young girl who had first been encouraged by her father in Adwa to paint the flowers instead of picking them was beginning to discover that what came naturally to her could become something much greater.