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Painting has always been my passion. I come from a family of artistic people. My aunt was creating animation movies. When I was a kid, I was painting and even had an exhibition. Then life took me away from painting. When I started my journey in the art of ikebana 12 years ago, my passion for painting slowly returned to me. And the time came for me to decide to blend my passion for ikebana with my passion for painting. I created Ikebana on the wall – paintings and reliefs inspired by the philosophy and the way of expression of ikebana. I saw this as a further development of my artistic endeavours.

I created several big and small pictures with plant material, chalk paint and wire, each of them reflecting an experience or inspiration of mine.

In 2018 I went to Japan on a research trip (thank you EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee). I went to a teachers’ class in Sogetsu headquarters in Tokyo, and I was given to work with a beautiful plant I never saw before – Japanese dragon tail willow. After the class I took the branches with me throughout Japan and all the way to Bulgaria. Now these branches are reincarnated in my Dragon babies painting.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai inspired me to create one of the paintings, the sea waves being represented by strelizia leaves.

Some years ago I went to Barcelona, and saw an exhibition of beautiful pictures of a place called Antelope canyon in Page, Arizona. Later we visited this extremely beautiful site. Now the stunning scenery that I witnessed has inspired me to recreate it in a work of art.

The visitors of Ikebana on the wall exhibition in the City art gallery in Plovdiv could see a sunset on the sea side, a fugu fish, sea waves, orange coral, a silver necklace, the Milky way, the jungle in Okinawa, beginning or end, …

They could also enjoy some installations made with bamboo and dried flowers and leaves, representing the rising moon, the night sky with stars, a tornado and fireworks with reference to the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays.

In one of the halls there was a big installation of painted palm leaves and balls from branches in different sizes, which I created with the help of my students Kremena and Lidia, and we also made some ikebana arrangements to blend with some of the paintings. The whole space was complete and revealed in a new way the beauty that ikebana brings.

On the opening of the exhibition on December 8, one of the visitors turned out to be a professor of philosophy … She said that the exhibition surprised her very much with beauty and harmony, she admired the pictures and creativity approach. There was a famous artist based in Plovdiv, who was surprised about the new art that was presented and called me an innovator.
It was amazing to me how these paintings provoked the visitors to do their own interpretations of what they saw in the works and how they brought out their own memories and emotions which they shared. The most interpretations were on the Orange coral painting – everyone seemed to associate it with a different image in their mind.

And the feedback left in our book, filled me with joy. I was so happy by the feedback left by a 14 year old girl named Jasmina: “I will not be able to describe the beauty of your art, but in my opinion, art is appreciated with our eyes and feelings. Ah… I really liked it and the artist is a genius! Quite unusual and unconventional, I admire you! As well as I get inspired because I am 14 years old. Create more art! Thank you for being you!”

I will quote also a feedback, left by a visitor and her daughter, which very well described what I had in mind: “Extremely original and inspiring works, filled with a lot of fantasy! Me and my 10 year old daughter are impressed. We also had the pleasure of meeting the author, who introduced us to her original world. Thank you!”

On Sunday, December 17, I did an ikebana workshop in the biggest hall of the exhibition. It was really inspiring for the visitors to create their first ikebana in this artistic atmosphere. We made some beautiful moribana compositions. They could take a picture of their arrangements on a pedestal among the paintings. I was overwhelmed by the positive emotions we all had together.

In our book, one of the participant shared that “It was the most wonderful Christmas present. Which I gave myself! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the opportunity and experience! I wish you bright holidays!”

It was a real pleasure for me and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to create this sustainable art, inspired by nature.

I would like to thank EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee for making this project possible. Also I would like to thank City art gallery – Plovdiv, for their great support, Sumura Eikou sensei for the video she sent me and for always being there for me, my passionate ikebana students in Plovdiv and Sofia.

I intend to continue to create more of this art and to present it in Sofia and other cities of Bulgaria.
The growing number of my students from Plovdiv and their devotion to ikebana urges me to continue to present the beauty of this wonderful art in the City of the Seven Hills (that’s how Plovdiv is also known) with exhibitions, performances and workshops, and to spread ikebana throughout Bulgaria.