Commercial Art and Design. In 1938, she returned home to Manchuria.In 1938 however, Manchuria had been taken over by the Japanese who had forced the Russians out. The Kriloff family had to flee. Due to the political nature of their flight from Manchuria, they were given an opportunity to emigrate to the United States.
In San Francisco, Lydia developed her skills in portrait and live model painting at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts. During WWII, she worked as a draftswoman at the Moore Dry Dock Company in East Oakland and at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in Vallejo. She also used her artistic talents to design posters and backdrops for movie studios in support of the war.
In 1943 at age twenty-six, she married and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Source: AskArt