When I was 18, I met a girl from India who would quickly become like a sister to me. We swapped stories and secrets, the kind of exchange that feels effortless only when trust is immediate. I wondered, how is it possible to meet someone from the other side of the world, and be this much alike. For me that friendship opened a door to Indian culture: I fell in love with their dance’s geometry and the warmth of shared, spicy, meals.
Like with every friendship there were ups and downs,of course. With time, I moved countries, and then again… and we sadly grew apart.
My painting Every Woman grew out of that chapter of my life. It is my way of honouring relationships between women of different cultures and the way they shape who we become.
About the artwork
At first glance you see layered, curved planes: cool blues, warm greys, and quiet neutrals that fold into each other. Look longer and the suggestion of two profiles appears, turned toward away from each other, yet merging together. The forms do not compete; they interlock, as if each silhouette completes the other.
That entwining is intentional. Friendship can be a soft meeting of edges, a negotiation of difference, a shared today.
Palette: muted blues, shell greys, soft olive; colours calm enough to listen.
Composition: intersecting arcs inspired by geometry
Mood: contemplative and intimate.
The friendship that made the painting
We first connected over parties and guys, then over food, then we lived together for a few years. I learned to toast spices until their fragrance lifted like a promise: cardamom, cumin, coriander, cloves. She would make turmeric milk, sweet and strong like her mother had, and we’d talk for hours. She introduced me to festivals that carry light and colour, such as Diwali’ and Holi, to Henna tattoos and to the family rituals of the Indian community.
At the age 18, dance was our shared language. Sha had brought some art pieces from back home and I was captivated by the precision and form of traditional Indian Dance. That sense of movement eventually found its way into my Dancers paintings, and back in those days I created a few Indian inspired pieces I no longer have and never photographed.
What the piece says about women and belonging
Connection is a practice. The figures are abstract, yet their closeness is unmistakable. Sisterhood is not an instant; it is a patient layering: softening, adjusting, learning. Our differences are not an obstacle; they are textures and layers of wonderfulness, even when things get hard. The varied tones remain distinct, yet the image only resolves because they coexist.
Negative space in art matters, it becomes the pause in a conversation, the room we leave for another’s story. For a what if… If I ever met her again, would things be like before?
When we talk about “women supporting women”, we often picture a chorus of agreement. In my experience, support is more nuanced. It looks like asking better questions, sharing the bad and well as the good and the fun, staying late to share stories and sometimes acknowledging that even when there’s distance, you wouldn’t have become the person that you are without that other woman. Every Woman tries to hold that nuance.
How Indian culture changed my daily life and my art
Food and hospitality: I learned the comfort of dal on a weary day (She makes a killer dal). Meals became a place to try new flavours which I have now introduced to my own children who love a good curry.
Learning about the other person’s language - quite literally, I discovered that many Indian words have the same roots as the Bulgarian ones. Who would have thought?
Movement and storytelling: It nudged my painting toward rhythm, repeating shapes like beats, holding stillness. This was also the first painting of my Undercurrents series.
An interest in traditional Indian paintings
This painting means different things to different people. For Joel Vos, a psychologist who printed in on the cover of his book on genetic counselling, and also acquired the original painting, included the following statement in the publication:
"To me this piece of art shows the different faces of life that people can be confronted with, for instance when they receive genetic counselling. It is the visualisation of a dual attitude, in which one's light-coloured need for certainty contrasts with the dark-coloured uncertainty of reality."
For me, it is my love letter to the women who make us braver, kinder, and more complete. If it speaks to you, I hope you will share it with someone who has widened your world: a friend, a mother, a sister by choice.
If you are curious about the process, how I sketch the forms, choose the palette, or translate movement into shape, reach out. I would love to keep the conversation going, swap stories, and continue weaving this quiet tapestry of global sisterhood.
If you want to take it home, it's availabe as a Limited edition giclee print on paper.
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