Figure III Sculpture

the “Angels” cycle is inspired by а childhood memory of mine. I was about six years old when during an early spring, and while the snow had not yet melted, me and my family were spending the holiday in Bistritsa. The village is huddled up in the mountain, right next to the forest and before the urbanization, it was very common for wild animals to come down, looking for food. Then, for the first time, I saw deers and even managed to caress one of them. There were about seven deers and the scenery was highly influential. One of the things that made me very impressed was that during this time of the year the horns of the young deers are covered with moss that gave their horns a delusive softness. In a certain moment there was an undefined noise, and the whole herd disappeared into the woods in seconds. This memory was imprinted in my mind as a miracle I had lived through. This is why I call my compositions "Angels". One of the biggest difficulties I faced was materializing the feeling, the emotion... trying to turn the intangible into material. This was a major creative issue I set myself up to resolve. In the sculptures from Angels cycle I am not trying to create some kind of a fictional world, it is our world, the one we live in everyday, I just removed everything unnecessary and left the essence, such as I understand it as important and valuable. One of my favorite sculptural materials is black iron, which I manipulate by cutting, welding, sawing, until I feel as plastic as clay and wax. I also work in stone and wood, in all sculptural materials my work begins with hundreds of drawings, with the making of small figures of wax or Plasticine and only then passes into work in a material that best recreates the concept. Most of my sculptures are finished through a patination process in which I oxidize the iron to achieve the incredible earth heat of rust. I see real beauty in the warm orange-brown shades of rust, which gives a finished look to the sculptures. But I have sculptures that I finish with paint in strong and aggressive colors (Transfiguration sculptures).