Mishel Atanasova Valcheva
I define myself an expansive person which is a positive characteristic of my artistic outbursts, projects and explorations. It happened so that since my teenage years, when I was still a student at Tsanko Lavrenov Art School in Plovdiv, graphic art drew my attention.
My attitude towards graphic art gradually developed during the next stages of my artistic education and my teachers contributed a great deal to that. At the beginning, I found inspiration in reproductions of Renaissance painings which amazed me with their elegance and the skillful creation of volume, shape and space.
Strange as it may seem, the art of painting didn’t interest me. On the contrary, I felt a certain level of disstisfaction towards it. In this period I drew lots of graphic compositions in which I alternated fantasy motives provoked by Salvador Dali. His painings impressed me a lot though I didn’t entirely understand the messages he conveyed. In any case, his strange visions had impact on my not so mature artistic thinking. I am very fond of this graphic world in which I am able to express emotions, transient conditions and feelings.
While growing and learning, I started to understand the profound links of graphic art with the interaction of colours and the state of my mind. Hot and cold lines, erupting flamboyant colours, decorative composition of elements in friezes, realizing the synthesis and ballance in the composition beteween graphic design, graphic art and paining of a given work be it on a canvas, mural or even bodyart – all that seems to formulate my attitude towards art.
My style is being built step by step. It is blended with my positive standpoint to life by reflecting on the moments of motion and moments of stillness, in the state of progression. I find provocation in the surrounding world and my explorations are diverse. However, the main messages my works carry are the joy that life brings me, the seized moments of happiness, and my puisuits to keep the ballance between reality and fantasy.
I strive my works to convey the romantic spirit of old fairy tails, the song tradition of our folklore, and to chatch the rich colourful cobninations in the traditional fabrics of my people. All these characteristics are situated in the context of modern art offering many challenges in which I find new temporal and spacial dimensions.
I hope to discover and create every day because the process of art itself through which I pass is a guarantee for my sense of belonging to art and its infinity.
EDUCATION
– 2007 – 2011 Bachelors degree at Graphic Design and Photography” at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts, Plovdiv (Prof. Nikolay Lautliev) Graduated with:
– Graphic Design Project– Photography Exhibition
– Average grade on State Exams
– 2004 – 2005 One year “Pedagogy of Fine Arts” at the Academy of Music, Dance and
Fine Arts, Plovdiv– 1999 – 2004 Secondary Education: Graphic Art at “Tsanko Lavrenov” High school in
Plovdiv.
EXHIBITONS
02.04.2014 Debut solo exhibition of paintings “Transformation”, the Gallery of Modern Art, Sofia, Bulgaria
01.07.2011 “Exhibition Graphic Design and Act Black and White Photography”,
Balabanov House, the Old Town of Plovdiv, Bulgaria13.05.2011 Presented photography at the “Elastic” exhibition, Ancient Baths, Plovdiv
Bulgaria01.12.2010 Debut solo exhibition of paintings “The colors of my soul”, while
projecting my body art works, including a live demonstration of painting
on the body – Art club Basquat, Plovdiv, Bulgaria2009 Participation in an exhibition “5 years Class of 2004” with the glass held
in the National Gallery of Art, Plovdiv, Bulgaria2000 Participation in an Exhibition “Life Without AIDS” – Plovdiv, Bulgaria
ART EVENTS
03.10. 2011 Participation in “Charity for Children Suffering from Rare Diseases” – a
charity campaign at “Helicon” bookstore, Plovdiv, Bulgaria2008 Participation in “The Night of Museums and Galleries” Art Festival in
Plovdiv in general photographic exhibition held in “The Blue School”, at
the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
BODY ART EVENTS
01 – 07.07.2014 Тook part in “The World Bodypainting Festival 2014” in Pörtschach, Austria.
13.12.2011 Organized Birthday Body Art in Sofia, Bulgaria
02.12.2011 Organized Body Art Show in club Avenue, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
09.11.2011 Body Art demonstration – Chic&Cozy “Angels and Demons in club
Maskara, Sofia, Bulgaria29.10.2011 Body Art demonstration at the Italian Festival of Beauty and Hairstyle,
International Fair Plovdiv, Bulgaria28.10.2011 Halloween Party Body Art Demonstration, club Chervilo, Plovdiv,
Bulgaria28.10.2011 Demonstration at a Halloween Body Art School Party, Trade School,
Plovdiv, Bulgaria15.10.2011 Organized “Hair and Body Art Show”, club Marmalade, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
30.09.2011 Body Art Demonstration at “United Colors of Music”, club Yalta, Sofia,
Bulgaria15.09.2011 Organized Animal Body Art, Bansko, Bulgaria
04.09.2011 Body Art Demonstration at “I Like Fest”, Central square, Plovdiv
26.08.2011 Organized “Hair and Body Art Show”, club Marmalade, St. Vlas,
Bulgaria01.07.2011 Organized Body Art “July Morning Coffee”, Nebet Tepe, the Old Town of
Plovdiv, Bulgaria10.06.2011 Body Art Demonstration at the promotion campaign of Desperados beer,
Plovdiv, Bulgaria01– 03.04.2011 Body Art Demonstration at the XVII Italian Festival
of Beauty and Hairstyle, International Fair Plovdiv, Bulgaria26.03.2011 Body Art Demonstration at “Into the Light” café, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
30.10.2010 Body Art Show at the Halloween Party of Dj Pacho & Pepo, club Opium,
Plovdiv, Bulgaria25.09.2010 “Night of Museums and Galleries” in Tobacco warehouses
involved with Body Art Performance, in which the author presents her
idea of “Sensual Body Art Therapy”- a method for achieving relaxation
by drawing on the body – Plovdiv, Bulgaria
PROJECTS
15.06.2010 Sensual Body Art Therapy – a method for achieving relaxation by
drawing on the body (ORIGINAL PRODUCT)
PRIZES
14.05.2011 3rd prize at Start up, Elevator Pitch (Contest for Young
Entrepreneurs, part of the author’s idea-SENSUAL BODY ART
THERAPY-Achieving relax by drawing on the body), Plovdiv, Bulgaria1999 2nd prize at the contest between collage art schools in the country
“Give a person something that no person” Anti-AIDS Campaign 1999 and
touring-exhibition of the 50 best pictures.- Sofia, Bulgaria