Artist
Maya Nikolova
Artistic approach
I’ve been interested in assembly for several years. Brush painting and other standard methods are not enough for me. To draw, instead of paint, I use paper towels of all kinds. The napkin brings its own design and, by superimposing the thin layers, I create a rich background, I create my own design. I add graphic moments, fine details like, instead of pencil, I use twisted paper towels, rope, knitting and different thicknesses and colors of wire.
I like to use 3-dimensional space and combine different materials: pieces of rusted metal, sea wood, snail shells, fine hand-knitted fabric, old photographs, dead leaves cut by nature in such a way that they have become masterpieces themselves… I recycle old objects to give them new life. Once discarded and out of use, they are “dead” in a certain sense. I bring them back to life and transform them into a kind of visual poetry.
I find it provocative (for me and for the public) to take the object from the utilitarian to the poetic and in this way create opportunities for reading on several levels:
- paper and wood ;
- smooth and raised ;
- gray-white or bright colors;
- the softness of cotton thread and the hardness of iron wire;
- hot and cold ;
- fluid image or concrete memory.
Memories of my childhood influence, inspire and guide me in the creative process.
Design and improvisation coexist in my work. I open the door and let you into a world full of threads that wrap around me like a spider’s web.
Some works are conceived in advance, with sketches, and the result is known from the start. Others are entirely the result of improvisation, and are completed as the work progresses. In composition, I mix abstraction and concreteness, and use different textures to create each painting’s own rhythm. Light plays a crucial role in certain works: it either completes the drawing and adds the finishing touch, or washes it away and even annihilates it.
…fragility,
suppleness, delicacy,
hope and desire;
darkness;
and the burst of joy…
In my work, I’m more interested in emotion than anatomy. I like to provoke the viewer’s imagination and hope to encourage a dialogue with continuation. I hope to touch the sublime, to evoke feelings and emotions.
Leaving the audience free to interpret the unspoken, to make free associations of ideas, to allow them to feel what is not explicitly shown, is my dearest wish.
