About Cultural Appropriation

Here is a great video of a Romanian/German artist by the name of Shantel. It is called Disko Partizani. It captures the Balkan spirit both comically and tragically. Enjoy!

PS. The photo is from a fair my uncle took my grandmother and I couple of years ago. We went for the sausages and rakia but there was a market as well. One of the "products" for sale were swords.

Tabloid Drawings

I am posting some new work from the Tabloid Drawings series. These drawings are based on tabloid headlines and content from "Weekly In Touch". 24"x30" , watercolour and gouache on paper.

Miss Saskatchewan

Last night's performance went really well. Miss Saskatchewan was lovely and she graciously agreed to cut the ribbon for the exhibition It's Not About the Landscape. Below is the speech I gave to introduce her. Thank you Miss Saskatchewan!

I would like to thank all of you for coming out tonight to the opening of Its Not About the Landscape. The idea for this exhibition was born out of the fact that the majority of us the MFA candidates are not from Saskatchewan and we wanted to respond to our new found home through a group show. Through this process we collectively and individually researched how we fit within this place. Whether it is a collective project involving a local neighbourhood, baking at home or outfitting for survival in the Saskatchewan winter, I believe we captured the essence of our present landscape. We are all pretty diverse not only in our use of medium but in our understanding of Saskatchewan. And whether we stay or leave Saskatoon we will always have a little bit of the prairie landscape in us wherever we go. I would like to think of us as mini Saskatchewan ambassadors. With that said, I would like to introduce to you the real ambassador to Saskatchewan, Miss Saskatchewan 2008, Janice Moorgen, who graciously agree to officially open this exhibition. Janice represented Saskatchewan at Miss Canada International 2007 and Miss World Canada 2008. She is actively involved in various charitable organizations. She enjoys acting and modeling and currently work at Birks Jewelers. I present to you Miss Saskatchewan!
Thank you.

Update: This was just posted on the University of Saskatchewan's website.

Hi Bibi, please cheer up! Kato

This is the email my mom send me from our cat Kato, along with a photo of him. He wants to cheer me up after the horrible ordeal I went through the other night. On Wednesday, my friend K and I went to the downtown library from school to get ready for a meeting we had at a local magazine we sit on a board on. I felt a sharp pain in my lower right abdomen but did not think much of it. At 4:30 I thought I should miss the meeting and just go home. K left as I said I would just wait for the bus there. After she left, the pain increased acutely and I started throwing up in the library. The staff there was very helpful and asked me if I wanted an ambulance, I said no. They called for a taxi but the line was busy, so the security guard took me in his 70's car (red velvet interior, littered with coke bottles). He was super sweet and tried to keep me calm. I didn't know what was wrong just knew that I was not well. I got admitted to the emergency room right away, stripped and put on an IV. I can't remember this part very clearly as I got given morphine (three times in the course of the ordeal). The doctors run a series of tests to see what was wrong as I kept throwing up. Finally, after 6 hours they told me that I have a pretty serious kidney infection and I need to be on antibiotics. I took a taxi home, as I could not reach anyone to pick me up. It was -37 outside and I felt like hell. I have not left the house for a couple of days recuperating, drinking cranberry juice and eating soup that my lovely classmates K and D brought me. So, this is why my sweet mom is sending me emails from Kato.

It's Not About the Landscape

If you find yourself in Saskatoon on January 23, you are invited to "It's Not About the Landscape" show. It is a group show of the MFA candidates at the University of Saskatchewan.

Brrr

If it wasn't cold enough this article makes it even worse. The current situation in Bulgaria seems to be worsening. It will be almost two weeks since Russia cut off the country's natural gas supply. Gas is the main source of heat in Bulgaria and Russia is the one and only supplier. Russia is getting even with Ukraine, settling a new price for gas and it wants to make a point of being a powerful source shut off the gas not only to Ukraine but Bulgaria also. It will be always these little countries suffering when the big powers draw lines in the sand box of Europe. And what makes me mad is that people in Bulgaria have become so blaze about it. The shutting of heat has become a mere inconvinience, a reminder of the good old days when we had scheduled power outages to "save power". My uncle thankfully has a fireplace, so he is warm. I have not heard from him though, because he emails me from work and the school where he works is most likely closed as most schools in Sofia were shut down because of the heat shortage. The photo above is from the NY Times, the monkey looks especially sad huddling next to a heater.

First day of School

Well, it started with a bang. I can't wait to dive into my work. This is the only thing to do while braving the elements. Yesterday my eyelashes froze. I have to invest in a waterproof mascara. But thats the least of my problems. My hand froze while taking this picture just for one minute.

Братя Аргирови

This is an update from the last post. I got very nostalgic looking at old Bulgarian pop clips on youtube and I got to the Братя Аргирови site. They go by the name "Brothers Argirov" and are a pair of twins very popular in the early 80's. They are actually my 3rd cousins, which I always thought was pretty spectacular. And tonight they look better than ever. Aren't they cute?

Бяла тишина

This is a song I grew up with, still from my parent's time but it rang so true tonight. I am back in Saskatoon, it is white everywhere, and very quiet. The song is called "White Silence" and this is what is like here tonight. On another personal note, one of the guys playing the quitar was a friend and a neighbour of ours. Бандаракът.