Wanting to create religious paintings that could touch the heart, my influences came as I stood in Prague in front of the series of paintings of the history of the Russian people by Alphonse Mucha with their gigantic multifigured scenes showing masterful use of cools and warms and dramatic lighting. This was worth years of study. Further influence came in Vienna where Gustav Klimt uses gold decoration to enhance his figures. In 2002 Torgesen was privileged to study for a month at the Repin Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia under Igor Vademovich Petrov. Torgesen fell in love with the bold brushwork, heavy color and value, and the drama of the Russian artists. She traded drawings with her instructor and he said, “He hoped she had learned something from him because he had learned so much from her.” He also compared her drawings with music, saying her use of thick and thin line, and the movement and flow of design reminded him of a musical composition