He paints without compromising with himself. His paintings tell about the immensity up there and the life down here in all their shades. His stories dig into the thoughts, disregarding nationality and language, and maybe that’s why they comfortably reside at homes all around the world. He prefers collectors and exhibitions at a coffee in his own studio, and he is always open for new friends. He refuses to give his paintings to Bulgarian galleries, because he is not into trade and purposeless scattering. Since 2011 he publishes in the world famous American comic magazine Heavy Metal.

You are among the few artists who do what they can and what they want to do. Is there a recipe how to be yourself?

I am happy to do what I want. If there is a recipe, it is to follow your dreams. To some extend I manage to do that. Some times at the price of many privations, but other times life offers me many interesting opportunities. However, you have to be persistent in what you do, sincere, strict to the quality of your work, and most importantly – not to make compromises with yourself. Maybe these are the prescriptions people in all areas of life should follow in order to realize themselves fully.

Between the comics and the painting, the mythological and real, where do you feel most comfortable?

I try to combine all these things. The comics I draw are not widely spread type of closed lines comic. These are surreal art comics, with mythological characters and all types of symbols, inspired of course by the text. But while in the comics and book illustrations I work with writers, in the painting I am completely me. The whole process – from the idea to the actual finalizing on the canvas – is realized only through and by me. However, in everything I do I try to implement something I have liked in the art or on the street, something new for me and expressing me in some way.

One of your favorite characters – the satyr – is expressed by you from angel innocence to devilish lust. What is his real face?

The satyrs are really my favorite characters and they constantly inspire me. In the last 10 years they travel through my works with different faces and moods. What is attractive in them is their color. On one side they can be ugly, but on the other side – good. Also, they love art, they value wine and are submissive to the charm of beautiful women. Sometimes they are unserious and lustful, joyful and open-minded, reminding vividly of our human features and passions.

How did you achieve the dream of every painter – Heavy Metal magazine?

Everything started 10 years ago, when I met the writer Kerim. He was looking for an illustrator for his story “Fate Mate”. We published it and the readers’ reactions showed us that the tandem is successful. In 2011 we started publishing in the Turkish Heavy Metal magazine. The project continued with new stories and characters. Kerim’s stories are interesting, which allows me a lot of imagination in the drawing. Even technologically I can use different materials to create certain eclectics when illustrating his stories.

You said that you and the Turkish writer Kerim Sakizli share a long-term friendship. How do paintings turn into poetry and vice versa?

After “Fate Mate” Kerim got inspired by my paintings and wrote poems on them. We published a book, there was an exhibition. Then I did paintings on his poems. This is not an easy process since the poetry is difficult to translate from another language; it is difficult to read its spirit in depth. That is why I get more inspiration from the author as a human being – what subjects move him, how does he express himself, what are his dreams. This is me. But Kerim gets much easier into what I do, since he does not need a translator.

You like to draw paintings – enigmas, which often hide fairy women. What is their biography?

These women live in my head. I almost never paint from a natural model. Sometimes they are indirect characters, another time they sneak peak from somewhere or are imbedded in certain space. Why they are sneaking and what they have been doing before appearing on the canvases – I cannot explain. If I could, I would have been a writer. I try to draw my feelings and senses in a composition, color and style that are comfortable to them. Concerning the woman, she is something perfect, and that is why I have always been attracted to drawing her. And the man… he is rather a satyr.

Let’s talk about your exhibitions abroad and in Bulgaria. Does your art lose something in the “translation” to different languages?

The people are open to what I do. They see something and evaluate it honestly in most cases. I think people should not be divided geographically. The audience is all the same in a civilized country.

Every day you travel from home to the studio. Where do you find the inspiration?

Everywhere. Very often I even change my route. If every day you walk in a single line, you see the same trees, the same people. This more or less limits you, does not give you the freedom to work. That is why I meet new people, I walk alone through Sofia, not through parks but on the streets among the people. The inspiration comes subconsciously without me seeking it. You cannot know where exactly it is at the moment, and there is no point in waiting for it. It finds you somehow, if you do not stop looking for it as well.

In your pastorals you boldly cross the physical laws. Where exactly do the trees fly away with all their roots?

The dimensions I draw I have either dreamed, or have seen. I cannot explain even to myself why it has turned out like this. The tree is in the air because it is comfortable like this. It has earth and water under it and sky above it, and who knows what other invisible dimensions around it. I try to draw the painting in a way so I can enter it, live in it. These are the dreams that have turned into an almost real place of living.

Are there images and themes you have not drawn and that in a way resist your brush?

I do not paint icons. It is not that I cannot paint them, I just do not feel for it. I have been asked many times but I refuse. Yes, I use some biblical stories that inspire me, but I do not follow their imaging by the canon. I have no limitations in the themes since I do not taboo myself. The world is vast and attractive. Well, I have favorite characters – satyrs, women, those landscapes out of this world that I paint, but certainly there are many other I have not found yet.

Your favorite drawing technique is…

The classic one – oil painting on a canvas. I apply certain padding, a technology I have created over time. However, slaving is far from me, in the technique as well. That is why I do what not – illustrations, graphic drawings with Indian ink and a pen, water color, crayon, pencil drawings.

Commercial and fed, or idealist and hungry? The man of art is…

The golden middle way is to do what you like, what you really want, and at the same time people to like you and buy your work. The idealism does not always mean poverty and sufferings. In this sense I am lucky because there are collectors who like my things. The most important is to follow your ideals without compromises. However, you have to be an honest idealist. If you are not, you will do this or that for some time, but then you will collapse. Because you cannot defend what you do. Another way for an artist to lose himself is when he falls into the cliché of certain style and slaves it selling his works. It is very bad for a painter to repeat himself. That is why I always leave a way out, so I can run away to new challenges at any given moment. To be recognizable, to be demanded is very nice, but for me it is better to have the opportunity for a change.

Your last exhibition is “Playing Cards”. What do they deal – belote, solitaire or a prophecy?

I do not play cards, I cannot tell the fortune and I do not play solitaires. But I hope they deal some prophecy for a bright future. Cards have rich history and development and that is why I find them interesting. In my canvases I have tried to imbed symbols from different times, bent through me so they can live in a new way. For those who play cards – the paintings will be published also in a standard form of a deck of cards.

You meet a magical beetle. You have the right of three earthly wishes or one magical one. What would you choose?

The magical one of course. But it does not have to be global, right? It can be personal, after all the beetle is temporarily mine. I would wish something nice for my child, because the kids are the truth and the innocent future of this planet.