When did you begin you artist journey?

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I can't determine a specific point. Rather, it is an overall sense of the path of development. I always knew I was going to be an artist. With me, things develop very consistently and gradually. I've been painting all the time since I was a little kid. There were drawings everywhere in our house. My mother wondered where to keep them. At the beginning of my development it was mostly my father who encouraged me to become an artist. He took me to exhibitions, to artists' studios. He was an hobbyist in wood carving, in sculpture. He made an attempt to apply to the Art Academy. My brother is a professional sculptor. So, there were conditions for development in my family. I first studied ceramics at the Art High School in Troyan, where I found myself in a favorable artistic environment for a complete professional development. There, far away from home, at the age of 16 you are independent, you make your own decisions, you gain life experience early, which is a great advantage. Even then I was committed to art. I worked extra, outside the academic curriculum. I dreamed of becoming a great artist. Then I entered the Art Academy in Sofia. In my second year I started to develop my independent idea - ceramics for the blind and the sighted. In a few years I created a new field (a new genre) for the native reality. I developed a broad tactile perception of art. I spiritually involved the other part of the audience - the blind. Because of my research on the sense of touch, I studied psychology at the University of Ruse. I published two books. Then I defended my dissertation at the Department of Sculpture of the Academy of Arts, related to Bulgarian ceramic sculpture, which again defined a new field. For the first time in the Bulgarian art history I researched Bulgarian sculpture on a broad basis, beyond the traditional understanding of sculpture. There is only one moment of hesitation in my life whether I should continue to pursue art. When I graduated from the Art Academy Bulgaria was in total stagnation, a consequence of the transition from socialism to a new democratic system. A large part of the population was immigrating to seek a living. And I went abroad to seek my fortune. But after a few months I fell into a crisis, because of the work, which was not suitable for me, and which oppressed me. I couldn't engage in creativity. I returned to Bulgaria and settled in a village where I prepared my first solo exhibition after finishing my studies.

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Where does your inspiration come from?

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I don't rely on inspiration, but on the need to create something with my hands. It is divine that a building, a chair or a female image can appear out of nothing. If we can talk about inspiration it comes from the gift. There is the root cause of things. If I don't work for a long time, some tension builds up that can be destructive. Maybe the inspiration is the images in my mind, which means that I am constantly inspired. Unfortunately, due to the slow technological process, I am not able to realize all the ideas in my mind, which are constantly flowing into each other.

Do you have any experiences that have impacted your art?

There is nothing interesting, something fateful. I mentioned the only (up to that point) creative crisis in my life, when I emigrated to Spain. That turned out to be a particular test for me. In Spain, I had fallen into a kind of hole because of the pointlessness of life. I was able to afford a lot of material things, but my soul was empty because I couldn't engage in creativity. But thanks to this crisis, I came back to Bulgaria with a new enthusiasm and greater firmness in the field of art - with a sense of destiny. I no longer had illusions that I could stop being creative. When I get fed up with sculpture I redirect my activity (for a while) into making books, curatorial and research projects. So I follow the path of art, changing the subject for a variety.

How would you describe your creative process?

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I define myself as an intuitive author. For me, instinct is greater than knowledge. Before I start working I see images in my mind like a picture with color and detail. What I have to do is materialize them, get them out of my mind. I am not one of the authors who improvise. I know what I am doing. With me, the conceptualisation of the work follows the image. This is how my work develops, step by step, following the images. This also applies to my curation and research projects. Over the years I have changed my image three times by itself, hopefully I will enter a fourth stage of development in the future. But I don't know where instinct will lead me? Technologically, after I build the work, I cut it into hundreds of fragments to bake and color. Then I join them together by numbering them to form the whole of the work again. To gain time I work several works at once.

 

What is integral to your work as an artist?

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These are the images in my mind. It's a pure foundation for creativity that I hold onto. The other is a lot of work and consistency to manifest originality if you carry it within you. I have a spiritual understanding of art and life. I accept that the root cause of things is spiritual. It's a matter of principle, of worldview. Modern art seems to have lost its vitality, which is very characteristic of old cultures. For me, the need to do something with my hands is defining. This inner need is the guiding motivation for the work, not payback or proving myself to colleagues, awards or career development.

What do you aim to say by the themes in your art?

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Over the years, the themes I've touched on purely intuitively have been social and philosophical. I try to challenge the viewer to think about the meaning of existence. I encourage him indirectly to answer the eternally relevant questions of human existence. Where does man come from? Where is he going and does he really carry the human in him? And in what direction is the world moving? Is the mother earth in collapse? These are the enticing and questioning messages of my artistic path. And I believe that this is the basic state of freedom in the human right to exist.

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Do you feel your art challenges existing barriers?

 

I mentioned some things, but I avoid explaining my work. I leave that to the specialists. Mostly my recent works, art historians in Bulgaria and abroad say it is innovative. It has an original vision with a powerful new language. But in my search for newness, I don't rely on cheap provocation, I don't play (like some contemporary artists) with kitsch, seduction, amateurishness, etc., re-familiarized as originality...