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different generations gives opportunities for a cultural exchange. The help of the instructors is very important. For most of the years I’ve spent at the League, I have been attending Charles Hinman’s and Mariano Delrosario’s classes. I’m happy to take their advice and also to have my colleagues’ opinions about my work. According to my friends here and in Bulgaria, I’m gradually changing my style of painting and broadening the themes in my work. I had a chance to participate in many exhibitions in New York and New Jersey, and I’m happy when some of my paintings are embraced by art collectors. My goal is to combine Bulgarian spirit and tradition with the achievements of contemporary American and Western art in philosophic, emotional, and spiritual aspects. As a conclusion, I would like to say that I admire many Bulgarian artists who, in spite of the totalitarian regime, succeeded in becoming well-known to the world. I’ll mention some of them— the artists Vladimir Dimitrov-Maistora, Zlatju Boiadjiev, Svetlin Risev, and the Picasso, Chagall, and others. I was also interested in the work of American artists: Rauschenberg, de Kooning, Warhol, Pollack, Basquiat, and others. My thinking was formed by the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as well as others such as Coehlo, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Bulgakov. My inspiration also comes from life in all its aspects: nature, people, human relations, and the feelings they evoke. I like to express objects in more dynamic and interesting ways than they appear in real life. I’m satisfied when I can combine the rational and the irrational, reality and myth. My goal is to recreate a new world, where colors, lines, and forms are a vision different from the reality. I love to use symbolic elements in my works. My medium of choice is oil on canvas. The oil paint gives me the feeling of vividness, control of the colors—the way they can be blended. I feel as if the paint “remembers” the feelings I put in while I’m using it. While I was living in Bulgaria, I participated in numerous exhibitions in Europe, and I sold a lot of my paintings. It was good financial support for me and my family. But I had problems with the presentation of these exhibitions, because I lived behind the Iron Curtain and there were a lot of restrictions on traveling abroad. During the totalitarian regime, art was subordinated to party 8 LINES from the League ideology. Socialist realism was in conflict with Western contemporary art, which was blamed for formalism, subjectivism, and decadent naturalism. Art styles, such as expressionism, cubism, abstractionism and others were deemed decadent and reactionary. Artists were required to have social engagement and to present subjects that were approved by the party leaders. I didn’t agree with this policy. I was willing to meet and see the democratic world and Western contemporary art. After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, I had the opportunity to move to the United States—that was 14 years ago. My first art show was at Agora Gallery. I was happy and excited about my first meeting with American artists and viewers. The owner of Agora Gallery told me about the Art Students League and advised me to visit it. Later, I found out that this place is known for its broad attraction to artists from all over the world and as an educational center of art. I enrolled and very soon I shared with my friends that this is the place where I would like to be 24/7. In every corner of the building, you can feel the spirit of art. The contact with people from different nationalities and most famous, Christo (Christo Javacheff); the opera singers Nikolay Gyaurov, Ghena Dimitrova, and Boris Hristov; the jazz player Milcho Leviev; the folk singer Valya Balkanska, whose most popular song Izlel e Delyu Haydutin is a part of the of Voyager Golden Record selection. I’m blessed that my life is dedicated to art. It gives me a meaning and a reason to exist. From top: Spirit of the Temple, oil on canvas, 33 x 30 in.; Day and Night, oil on canvas, 30 x 34 in.
Shiho Sato Poetic Harmony TRAVEL PERSPECTIVES Born in Yokohama, Japan, I moved to Mexico after earning my bachelor’s degree in global studies with a thesis titled, “Transformation of the Identity of Chicanos,” and started my art career by drawing and painting as documentation of the moment. During that time, I traveled around Central America, South America, Africa, and Europe, while painting and writing about my experiences. Then, in 2006, realizing my strong interest in figurative expression, I moved to Europe in search of expertise in traditional realism and spent eight months studying life painting and drawing with Ted Seth Jacobs. The following two years were absorbed by independent study in Madrid (Prado), Zürich (Kunsthaus), and Berlin (Gemäldegalerie), and I executed ten large-scale copies of old master paintings. “ ...the world is composed of complex elements that are actually in harmony. “ In 2009 I moved to New York City in search of its art community and enrolled at the Art Students League, where I studied with Michael Grimaldi, Costa Vavagiakis, Harvey Dinnerstein, Michael Pellettieri, and Jonathan Shahn. My work expanded to include sculpture, mixed-media, and printmaking. Using different mediums creates traces of my reflections and responses during the creative process. As the work develops, I enjoy watching something poetic emerging. Since 2013, after completing the League’s four-year certificate program, I have been exhibiting around New York while continuing to broaden my range of expression. Working on art brings me a strong awareness that the world is composed of complex elements that are actually in harmony. The harmony I feel in the process is touching and beautiful, and gives me the impulse to keep creating. To create art forms and shapes requires not only technical skills but also ability in serene self-analysis. An artist must undertake severe construction and deconstruction of her own inner world. Successful work contributes Above: Sound Anonymous 11, 2015, oil, 15 x 9 in. FALL 2015 9
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