Natasha Shakov began her artistic career painting and sculpting in Azerbaijan. From a very young age, she was very invested in her artistic endeavors. She began her formal training at the Center for Fine Arts in her native city of Baku, but in the seventh grade she was censored for creating colorful, joyful art that deviated from the grays, browns, and blacks produced by her peers in post-war Soviet Union. This shocking expulsion led a professor at the Baku College of Architecture to invite Shakov to apply to the college and work with him personally. He was inspired by her desire to make people happy with her art and was instrumental in beginning her career as an architect

Shakov later attended the Azerbaijan State School of Architecture and eventually received her PhD in the Russian state program for architecture and city planning, allowing her to build the world she hoped to see after the destruction of the Second World War. Her skill and artistic eye eventually led to her immigration to the United States in 1979, where she has designed hotels and restaurants all over the Western US while simultaneously exhibiting her work in private exhibitions. Shakov’s artwork is exhibited and collected in countries around the world, including Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, France, Canada, and the United States.