“Yearning”

“Daunting storm”

“On the threshold” (“Sur le seuil”)

Oh ,holly democracy....

Oh, holly democracy… - "Oh, sancta simplicitas" - Jan Hus at the stake in 1415. The picture may be considered emblematic. Yet, it is a message and above all – a provocation. Its value lies not in what is apparent, but rather in what is hidden. Decode it!

Where to now ?

I dedicate this to my lost Bulgarian generation. We happened to be the sacrificial lambs in a dirty geopolitical game. In 25 years the Bulgarian politicians managed to achieve what Byzantium and Turkey had failed to do for 8 centuries of slavery – destroy the Bulgarian nation.

Enigma

The mystery of our life. What wouldn't one give for a peek in their own future. Faith. This mysterious life story - who wouldn't want to solve it? And as the fairy tales go - at our birth we are visited by our Fates who would determine our life path. Alas. Only fairy tales have a happy ending.

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O.J.

Objective justice. This is the title of the painting that these two letters stand for. A crime is only defined as being one in court. And in today's commercialized world everything is for sale. Including conscience. In court, where judgments are subjective, conscience is measured in tens and hundreds of "pieces of silver". The majority of the magistrates worship not Themis, but the Golden Calf. Find it hard to believe? Look at the Bulgarian, and not only, justice system. There are more than a few judges reading the law as the devil would the Scripture for his own purpose. That is why the cats are black. That is why they are 9 in number.

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Saint George the Victorious

My Silence Cycle

The illusion of life

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Stairway in the sky

The Clown /The Politician/

(Truth lies in the details)

The sacrament of christening

Passing under the rainbow

Yordanovsko horo in Kalofer

In this painting I reproduce a Bulgarian custom typical for the town in the title. This custom takes place in the winter, in the beginning of each year and is related to the folklore tradition of Yordan’s day /6 January/ where men have to retrieve the Holy Cross from the icy waters of the nearby river. According to this tradition, whoever succeeds in finding the cross shall be blessed with good health and well-being throughout the year. In Kalofer, in addition to this ritual, the men from the town also dance this specific Yordanovsko horo dance in the freezing waters.

On the white road of life…..

On the white road of life, fate always awaits.

White silence

An unaffected and serene winter pastoral landscape. Here I have searched for the whiteness and virginity of nature. The lines are plain and clearly defined so as to suggest the viewer the calming white silence perceived in the late winter days in the mountain and the houses laying low under the snow.

The living mirror

The mirrored image of nature. In the clean and transparent mountain lake, the beautiful forest nature seems to look into itself. And it probably is pleased with what it sees. For it is eternal and intransient. And we, the people? Do we look into ourselves and what it is that we find there?

In the small grove near my house at the end of September /autumn/

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Zheravna in the winter

This small town is a symbol of the Bulgarian spirit. Its unique and typical architecture seems to incarnate the still living spirit and traditions of ages past. Zheravna is like embodiment of people’s wisdom, customs and patriarchal relations which have been lost forever in the civilized world. Yet, here they are alive.

At my grandfather's in the village

The unique romantic side of nature is to be seen at places where man creates it, appreciates it and uses its bounties - in the country side. Where drudgery is submitted to admiration to Mother Earth and in turn it yields beauty and fruit. The simple earthly beauty is accessible to those who have the eyes to perceive it.

The storm

So visible and tangible natural phenomenon when it is outside of us. But when it is inside us, it is like a hurricane meant for us only. A rising black wave sweeping and tearing everything in our soul. The hurting soul of an unappreciated artist.

The Death of Beauty /Beauty as an esthetic category/

A metaphor-painting.
In our commercialized world, beauty is depreciated. The plot is clear. Every detail of it speaks of the meaning of beauty. It, the perfect beauty, is only somewhere there in our mind, longings, dreams, hopes, illusions… And what about reality? Reality is here, on earth. And it is far from agreeable. It is reality that is in the painting. Matter without spirit, a chord without harmony, doomed loneliness.

Charity

An ordinary, suffering girl – one of the thousands in Bulgaria and of the millions in the world. She is begging in order to survive. Life has not been fair to her. Against the gray background of the pavement /life/, she has humbly stretched out her hand. But the emphasis is not on the gesture. It is on her eyes. Look into her eyes. There is everything in them: sadness, doom, hope, appeal, faith, kindness, innocence… The eyes and the hand stretched out to us. This life is real, it exists, though we hardly notice it in our dynamic daily grind.

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Sunset

A beautiful, somewhat mysterious sunset, the solution of which I have sought in the bright red and black nuances. The moment of mystery, of the sacrament. The moment when day gives way to night. The moment of the sunset. With its enigmatic mysteriousness, subtle mysticity, burning passion, sinful imagination, exciting dreams and impulses. The dance of shadows.

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Winter Tale

It is a fairy tale of a painting. A winter tale with cold beauty and chilling plot. The focus in it is in the brightly shining sun. Yet, it gives out no warmth. A river in which it is reflected and whose waters are forever flowing somewhere. The mist which has enveloped everything in this mountain landscape like a placenta. This is my winter tale…., or perhaps life?

Micro World – The Honey Comb

The small world, with its tiny, often insignificant details. We hardly notice them, but it is on them that our big life is built. The same goes for the honey-comb. It reveals how much harmony and accord there is in the little things. How much effort and self-sacrifice it takes to build something as big as the honey-comb and as delicious as honey. The focus is not on the bees – it is on the honey-comb; not on the creator but on the creation. It does not matter who but what he has created!

Micro World – Dew Drops

A breath-taking small world; a wonderful morning chord. Something small, beautiful and virgin-innocent. Something fresh, not defiled by life. Morning dew drops. What is cleaner, purer and more delicate than them? That is why, in my search, I have opted for pastel colors and hues.

Help

The eye is the most important organ of the human body which shows the inner peace of the individual. My eyes hide fear. They see innumerable outstretched hands begging for mercy, salvation and help. They trust their iris but it is black, empty and cold.

This is one look inside the human being and his soul.

Philosophy of Life

Life is a jungle in which man for man is a beast. The strong eats the weak in order to survive. This is natural selection. As a rule, the more defenseless is the one possessing beauty, symmetry and harmony. So, in my paintings the victim is a zebra torn by five bloodthirsty beasts. They are: aggression, greed, malice, selfishness and careerism.

The colour tone is consistent with the meaning of my painting. Everything is in brownish yellow with the exception of the zebra.

Between Two Sides

Our life lies between two extremes: from ...to - from beautiful to ugly, from joy to sorrow from youth to old age, from good to bad. But between the two extremes, there is always a great beginning and inevitable end (from birth to death). In his infinite life cycle, life always lies between these two sides. And we, the human being, are limited between them in our earthly time.

In my painting, a mother is leading her infant daughter in hand in her life. But at the end of this way she wishes to bring her child to her ideal, to her life goal that is high up there somewhere. This is the utter desire for prosperity to every child.

In the fiery circle

The pigeon is a symbol of the freedom. My pigeon is in the middle of a fiery circle. Surrounded by fire and unable to fly off. Each attempt is unsuccessful. The pigeon has already lost hope, submissive and devotional he has bent his legs and waits for his doom.

Aspiration

The disastrous human passions. They are so strong! Four hands fighting one another want to reach the small defenceless human embryo. The embryo is a symbol of the still encumbered person, hanging somewhere in the space and timelessness. And the hands are trying to reach it. To grab it and to throw it in the fire from which they come. The unblemished is waiting to be destroyed by the fatal passions coming from the boiling lava of life.

Which way now?

The snail crawls on the edge of a fiery crater. The snail carries on his back his shell – the world. Which way now? – The snail asks himself. There is a fire underneath. Boiling lava around him. Where now? He carries his little house and does not know where he is going. He leaves only thin shadow which the time is going to wipe out.

This cycle, which I work for three years, enfolds 3 sub-cycles: “In the cave-world”, “Genesis” and “Fire”. They symbolize the three component of the world creation – stone, fire and water. The cycle “Creation” includes 12 pictures as the months in the year. A main object in the pictures is the human embryo. Placed in various environments, the embryo – symbol of the clean human origin, has a different function. But it’s always in my pictures as the human presents in each change in the world.

Cycle: FIRE

Metaphor

The world is grey and fearful as the muzzle of a beast. Its fiery eyes hide the human embryo and the predator. Two beginnings of one thing – predator and prey. Which is the leading? Which one dominates? In each one of us it’s different.

Cycle: FIRE

Illusion

Away from the raging human fights. Somewhere above stays the embryo. Everything down smokes. As like the fire is far away and could not reach it. Up the stairs of the bright illusion blanket of the rainbow the embryo is calm and untroubled. But it does not suspect that soon it will fall in the fiery hell of life.

In it I try to represent the stages of the development of the human individual. Through the water, as a symbol of life, I follow the man from the conception to the death. The character is the same – a little boy, huddled up, as if lying in the womb. He /the character/ goes through the different stages of development, but the water is the medium, through which he exists.

Cycle: GENESIS

Conception

The individual undergoes a development, which turns him from an embryo to a fully developed human being, until he immerses into the water – life. He is in the stage of conception. There, in the water, his real life begins. It is variegated and particoloured around him, but without concrete outlines. It is only the water, with its waves, that awaits his immersion.

Cycle: GENESIS

In the green placenta of the clam

The individual is in the water. Until his maturity, he lives protected by the clam in its life-giving slime – the placenta. The clam is a symbol of security – the home and family of the character. The placenta represents the society, the environment in which he grows.

Cycle: GENESIS

At the bottom

The character is mature. The clam is replaced by the beautiful, but dangerous colour of algae. The individual lives there. Cozy sheltered in the lap of an old woman. She is his generic memory and wisdom. The wisdom of life. And the little fishes, symbol of that wisdom, swim around them. But both main characters are at the bottom. In the literal and figurative sense. Life goes on around them.The old woman is a symbol of predestining fate.

Cycle: GENESIS

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Cast Ashore

The end. The last stage. It comes a day, when the water casts him ashore. Through the tide in a sea-shell, he leaves the water and stays forever on the sandy sea shore.

On the verge of the abstract and the real – an attempt to depict the last 20 years of the Bulgarian history.

The antechamber

Year 1989. The wind of change didn’t miss Bulgaria. My country finds itself in the antechamber of a large obscure cave, where it will look for its light. Mysterious, vague but beautiful hope.

In the bosom

The 90-ies. Each day in search of oneself. The road is bleak studded with pinnacles, stalactites and stalagmites – slippery. At last – a beam of light. Could this be the site predestined by history?

The throne

Year 2001. The Bulgarian king, who abdicated 50 years ago returns and becomes Prime Minister. Bulgaria is at the crossroads – Republican Monarchy or Monarchist Republic. Absurdity?

In the depths

Bulgaria again at the bottom of the cave. Economically and socially. But there is also light. A little bridge…would it cross it and where would it lead the country to?

In the womb

The bridge leads to the most sacred place – the cave’s womb. There a new beginning is conceived. Among the cliffs and pinnacles. In the darkness and moisture. Desired or not – it’s alive. The sacrament of life. Something new – something better is awaited. /Bulgaria joining the EU/. Would this embryo come to the world?

Bulgarian lady

Characteristic pagan Bulgarian rite, during which young girls dance bare feet on live coals. This custom is one of a kind. In my picture the “Nestinarka” /the way of calling those girls/, carries an icon of the Virgin Mary with the newborn Jesus. The symbolic representation of the national spirit, combined with the faith in good and the trust in tradition. Spirit and substance. Dance on a glowing ember.

Spirit and Substance

There is a custom the Bulgarian folklore, when men wearing scary masks on their faces and dressed in fur and bright national costumes, chase the evil spirits away from the homes. Those men are called - “kukeri”. Wearing big bells around their waist, they dance their pagan dance. Those are the main characters of this painting. To the right there is a group of people. Misfits, which seem to be possessed by the spirits that the “kukeri” chase away. The clergy is among them. Degradation and decadence of man, symbol of which is the quietly lying dog beside them. To the left opposite the “Holy Trinity” is the church. Deserted and empty. Between the church and the three men are the “kukeri”, who chase away the evil spirits through their dance. Spirit and substance. Where do they intersect?

Many happy returns

Reproduction of a characteristic Bulgarian tradition, according to which, a girl in a national costume welcomes the guests with bread and salt. The bread is a symbol of labour and a gift of nature. That’s why I have placed the girl in the middle of a wheat field.

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In the bosom of Vitosha Mountain

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Winter

Inspired by Vivaldi and the irreversible circle of life I ventured to make my interpretation of this encoded order. An attempt to spiritualize the beautiful in the laws of nature. The dependence of man and the everlasting order and their inevitability.

The beginning of the end

Sequel of the previous subject-matter. Years later – this is the beginning, meager old lady at the end of her life course. With empty eyes, she carries the load of her life on her shoulder. Whereto? And in her feet – the chicken – the new beginning.

Democracy

So beautiful and so hollow /deprived of content/ this wonderful word could be. In the name of which people are manipulated, interests disguised and dreams are drawn up. In my case the characters and the idea are absolutely random Just a coincidence with my way of looking at things.

The temptation

Everyone carries it inside. Beauty and lust…what is it, that we expect from them?

Fiesta

A pastoral painting for the beautiful things in life. Rare and festive.