Mirela Lozanova Lyubenova-Mika

How has your transition from studying illustration at the Iliya Petrov School of Fine Arts to graphic design at Sofia University changed the way you approach painting?

Studying illustration at the Iliya Petrov School of Fine Arts gave me a strong foundation in drawing, composition, observation, and traditional techniques. It taught me to pay attention to detail and to think about how an image can communicate an idea or a feeling. But studying graphic design at Sofia University has expanded the way I think about visual language. I became more aware of structure, geometry, balance, color, and how separate elements interact within a composition. I think this combination has influenced my painting quite strongly. I still approach painting with the sensitivity and freedom I developed through illustration, but I now also think more consciously about composition and visual rhythm.

Mirela Lozanova Lyubenova-Mika | Abstract Waterfall

You describe your work in terms of postmodernism and abstraction. What do these ideas mean to you in your own artistic practice?

For me, postmodernism is mainly about freedom — the freedom to combine different influences, styles, references, and ideas without feeling that I have to follow one particular artistic language. I like the idea that an artwork can contain contradictions and different visual approaches at the same time. Abstraction gives me another kind of freedom. It allows me to move away from simply representing what I see and instead focus on emotions, shapes, colors, and relationships between forms. I don’t always want the viewer to have one specific interpretation. I like leaving space for their own associations and experiences.

Your works range from portraits and imagined landscapes to abstract compositions. What determines whether you develop an idea through a recognizable subject or through abstract forms?

It usually depends on what I want the work to communicate. Sometimes an idea begins with something recognizable — a person, a landscape, or a particular atmosphere — and I feel that the subject is important to the meaning of the painting.

Other times, the subject is only a starting point. I gradually simplify or transform it until the recognizable elements almost disappear and what remains are shapes, colors, and movement. I don’t necessarily decide this at the beginning. The painting itself often determines how far I take the idea toward abstraction.

Mirela Lozanova Lyubenova-Mika | Ladyfan

Geometric shapes appear throughout your work, sometimes becoming part of faces or natural settings. What interests you about reinterpreting organic forms through geometry?

I find the contrast between organic and geometric forms very interesting. Nature and the human figure are naturally irregular and fluid, while geometry introduces a sense of structure and order. When I combine the two, I can look at familiar things in a different way. A face, for example, can still remain recognizable while being broken down into geometric planes and shapes. For me, this creates a balance between something natural and something constructed, which is also connected to my interest in graphic design.

Your paintings include both warm, earthy palettes and cooler combinations of blue, turquoise, and violet. How do you choose the colors that will shape the atmosphere of a work?

I choose colors according to the feeling I want the painting to have rather than following a fixed palette. Warm colors can create a sense of intimacy, energy, nostalgia, or warmth, while cooler colors can make a work feel more distant, calm, mysterious, or dreamlike. Sometimes the colors appear quite naturally while I am working. I may begin with one color that feels important and build the rest of the palette around it. I also enjoy creating contrasts between warm and cool tones because they can give the composition more depth and tension.

Mirela Lozanova Lyubenova-Mika | Lotos 2.0

Which artists, visual traditions, or experiences outside art have had the strongest influence on your work so far?

My education has definitely been one of the strongest influences on me, especially the traditional drawing and painting training I received at the Iliya Petrov School of Fine Arts. At the same time, I am influenced by many different visual sources rather than by one particular artist or movement. Graphic design, contemporary visual culture, architecture, nature, photography, and everyday experiences all find their way into my work. I am especially interested in the way different visual languages can coexist. I think that is one of the reasons I am drawn to combining recognizable imagery with abstraction and geometric elements.

Mirela Lozanova Lyubenova-Mika | Pumpkins

As you begin sharing your work with a wider audience, what would you like to explore next, and how do you hope exhibiting will contribute to your development?

I would like to continue experimenting with the relationship between figurative painting, abstraction, and graphic forms. I want to become more confident in developing larger and more complex compositions and to explore new ways of using color and geometry.

Exhibiting my work is important to me because it allows the paintings to exist outside my own studio and become part of a dialogue with other people. I am interested in seeing how different viewers respond to the same work, because their interpretations can reveal things about the painting that I may not have considered myself. More than anything, I see exhibiting as another part of learning. I want to keep experimenting, trying new approaches, and allowing my work to develop naturally rather than limiting myself to one particular style.