Natalia Anatolievna Strizh was born in 1962 in the town of Ostrogozhske in the Voronezh Region of Russia. Since 1974 she has lived and worked in Voronezh. She studied at the Voronezh Art School until 1978 under professors A. M. Sanina and I. N. Slobodchikov. She then studied at the Voronezh Art College until 1985