Featured Artist for June 1999

Featured GiveAway by Iliyan Slavchev A Gleam 51" x 37" - 1998 Mixed Media on Canvas Valued at $4500

Pamela McAtee Worcester, MA

A Gleam displays energy, emotion, and passion. It was made during a tempting moment to reflect a mysterious world and may help us find our true identities. It's a "cut" of a surprise moment where we seem to understand something so clear in a second that it appears at once as a distinct impression that cannot be replaced by anything else. This helps us realize our efforts and what we strive for in life. Sometimes we are looking for something or dealing emotionally with an issue when the surprise moment arrives. In this time clarity flashes to understand something we've possibly missed along the way.


MEET THE ARTIST

Featured Artist Iliyan Slavchev

Iliyan Slavchev was born February 10, 1959, in the small industrial town of Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria. He now lives and works in the historical town of Plovdiv, second largest city in Bulgaria. In 1986, he completed his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia with emphasis on painting. He likes working big and has already completed over nine projects in this scale - two wall paintings, several giant aluminum panels, and a pair in aluminum and stone. His current project is a stained glass design yet to be finished.

In 1993, Iliyan turned to small scale but always returns to larger work. From his "Cycles" series, "In the Air or in the Water," "The Freedom to Be Free," and the more conventional brass and aluminum works are done with a set method of approach and materials. Iliyan attempts to trace space and let the viewer try to figure out whatever he's trying to do. He wants to let the viewer's imagination run and express himself in whatever his motives are.

Iliyan tries to work as a perfectionist. He believes that things are only things and that emotions in action create an essential sensitivity.

Iliyan has been interested in art since childhood. A kindergarten teacher gave his scrawls some attention when he was five. At seven years he started attending a therapy group that discussed art. At this time, he still didn't have the knowledge of a landscape or still life. He remembers it as a remarkable time of art introduction due to support from renowned Bulgarian artist Ivan Popovsky. That was time when he was free to investigate different possibilities of arrangements in miscellaneous techniques. Popovsky was an especially kind teacher that introduced to Iliyan artists like Monet, Renoir, Cezanne and Gauguin, to name a few. He literally opened Iliyan's eyes to the world of art.

Art school was a very much needed for Iliyan because of basic lessons and viewpoints presented. Iliyan graduated from high school in Sofia in 1978, after which he attended the Academy of Arts in Sofia, graduating from there in 1986. He specialized in wall painting which at that time included decorative art in every medium, architecture included. Still he feels self-education is necessary or an artist will only be fluent in process instead of passionate. "One must discover the passion to form your individual vision about art and to pursue level after level until you surpass your own personal need as well as others." Iliyan believes that all things in this world have a very complex interconnection so it is impossible to avoid self-discovery. "Otherwise, we would never be in the position to do something unique and passionate."

YELLOW musters the material or spiritual? It could be about a moment of silence before magic converts us into people. Or it could be about the moment where we are awaiting something to happen. We could be staring at illusion and not quite sure where we're going. Regardless, "Yellow" is a warm place where we can bare our souls. Scattering to any directions, perhaps a spirited dance. Whether it be an effort or silence, the light plays in yellow with a trace of glinting sliver.

Yellow, 51" x 31", 1998 Acrylic on Canvas $3500

Iliyan says that making his art is like a game, jumping work to work in order to later overlook how it's all connected. Like breaking a mystery's shell and going into that zone, to the most holy, "most personal zone," and to momentarily release the energy hidden there. Fixing an emotion, expressing a feeling, offering an instance which brings us happiness. That moment converts us into something beyond our bare essentials and gives us a heartfelt understanding of our environment.

Passion for art keeps Iliyan working. It's that temptation that keeps him going. Maybe for this reason it's difficult for him to say exactly what it is that makes him want to paint. He claims art is his life, therefore, to divide something that he feels is just indivisible, is just impossible for him. Thus he could say that freedom is a mystery because it is something that is generally difficult to access, but not impossible. He's interested in this unique universality and that helps give him clarity in giving him an incentive to work.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Iliyan produces art right after he comes up with an idea, no matter where he is or what time it is. When the idea occurs he prefers to work alone but doesn't always have to be in his studio to work. He drinks coffee in the mornings and insists that his imagination stays wide awake even when he sleeps!

Iliyan works full time in art, whether decorative or industrial. He considers art to be any artist's usage of anything. He loves his family and spouse, who is an applied graphics artist. His son is a high school art student in Plovdiv and spirituality an important part of his life. He claims to be excessively fussy but loves elegance and the pleasure "to have the pleasure to offer pleasure." These things he loves most behind his work, of course. He strongly dislikes obscenity, blindness, low self-esteem, prowling animals.

	AN ENDLESS STORY is like a human life span longer than we can imagine. If we use a lot of words we can forget what we originally intended to say or have it buried within a bundle of words to the point that it loses meaning. Generally things repeat but the act is the same and only circumstances change. Values remain the same.
An Endless Story, Length 22", 1998 Brass and Glass $3800

The guidelines he's built for himself are self-contained. He sees them as a mechanism that offers him the opportunity to improve. It excites him to formulate new ways to benefit ourselves with new applications and options. Iliyan considers his hobbies as an entire human activity. He thinks that they are all connected more or less with his art life. Everything seems to be a hobby whether he works for himself or for others. It all reflects on him as someone that enjoys "having the pleasure to offer the best."

A PLOT consists of at least two moments to interact. And a picture may show you what you see and a lot more.
	A Plot, 1998 12 " x 16" Mixed Media on Canvas $1800

Iliyan makes use of numerous materials in his work. Whether it be polymer or oil paint, metal, stone, wood, glass, fabric or something else on smooth, or rough, or even a constructed surface. He uses canvas, linen, plywood or anything else he can find, dependent on his impulses. He is only interested in the effect that separates the materials or formed combinations. He indicates that as much as each material brings its own character, it also offers different advantages. Whatever he uses in his art is a question he finds hard to explain since it truly depends on what aesthetic he wants to convey. Most often the finished product is a combination between a variety of materials and space. What actually gives him desirable results is the effect he originally intends. Like an "endless vibrating space, pulsing in any direction, everywhere inwards to us, and outward to infinity."

	Whether a celebration of feelings, a state, mood or impression of the imagination, NATURE-1 may stir feelings about personal issues. That which makes one feel as if they're just venturing to a garden in their own parameters. Iliyan says this painting is a "self-portrait" all about himself, expressing what he wants to offer everyone.
Nature-1, 37 " x 51", 1998 Mixed Media on Canvas $3800

IMPORTANT PROJECTS

1988 Decorative-plastic composition "WATER" for the face facade of BISSERA plant in the town of Hascovo – 21' X 25' X 1 1/2'.

1989 Decorative-plastic wall composition - Aluminum 17 3/4' X 25' X 1 1/2 ' for the central facade of the administrative D building of USTREM Company in the town of Polvdiv.

1989 Decorative-plastic wall composition "SPINNING DISKS" – mosaic, metal & aluminum - 10 1/2' X 6' and 42' and 6' - for the central lobby of representative floor of ZMM Company in the town of Assenovgrad.

1992 One hundred years aeronautic in Bulgaria – a spacious plastic composition stone aluminum – 6 1/4' X 10 1/2' X 69 1/2'. The Central Park in the town of Plovdiv – competition winner.

1993 An inside design of two-three seated airplane – of the scale of one to five – for "AVIOTECNICA" in Plovdiv.

1995 Separating flying wall – Aluminum – 7' X 37' X 2 1/4' - Multifunctional hall of ZMM Company in the town of Assenovgrad.

1996 "ELECTROLYSIS" – metal /aluminum/ - 12 1/2' X 5' X 50' X 5' - A plastic composition flanking the central entrance space of the administrative building of "Combine for Nonferrous Metals" in Plovdiv.

1998 A window stained plastic glass 8' x 10' for the lobby of TEMPODEM Company in Plovdiv.

1999 Two windows "Cosmos" glass and glass/resin – 29 1/2' x 10' ; glass, resin, stained glass/ powder form– 39' x 5 3/4'.

A lot of projects in the area of applied graphics, trademark, advertisement, artistic space formation, books, leaflets, catalogues, etc. Variety of plastic panels and constructions.

Contact the Artist

Please Email ArtQuest for sales information

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am joyful when I see that people are doing something more for themselves. And am always happy when I'm asked to help them. To offer and give them what they really want. I think that people need to get closer to one’s own real nature. To find one’s own universe, by one’s own eyes. I am convinced and thanks to people like Kathy Kahre that all this will become possible. We all owe this to our souls since our souls are what really deserve a bit more attention. ~ Iliyan Slavchev