Interview with Mira Miroslavova – Bulgarian Symbols

The idea behind our Association’s newest project – Bulgarian Symbols, was to present the work of 5 talented Bulgarian artists and their vision of widespread Bulgarian symbols. The chosen designs became part of our first merchandise line. In fact, we like to call it a travelling exhibition as it spreads Bulgarian culture around the globe. This time, we would like you to meet Mira Miroslavova!

Bulgarian Symbols – Mira Miroslavova

Mira Miroslavova

Mira is a talented, upcoming Bulgarian visual artis; a perfectionist in everything she does. She is constantly drawing, portraying the world around her, experimenting with shapes, colors and  visual designs. For her work on “Bulgarian Symbols” she picked the image of a stork. A bird often associated with the local “Martenitsa” tradition.

Bulgarians celebrate this holiday every year on the first of march. It is a sign that the new cycle of life is starting with the coming spring. It’s around that time of year that storks fly back from the warmer countries – a true indication that spring has already arrived.

Here is what Mira herself had to share about her work in this project:

The Interview

Please describe yourself with up to 5 words.

Intuitive, responsible, ambitious, loving and impatient.

What is your main focus at the moment?

Illustrating books. To be more precise, my team and I are creating whole new worlds within our publishing house.

Which is/are your color/colors?

All of them, because it all depends on the combination. However, the darker colors always manage to find their way into my illustrations.

If you could appoint yourself to work on a project of your choice, what would that project be?

Working on bringing back Cartoon Network from the late 90s, and early 2000s. Or creating similar animations, which include the typical humor of the time.

Who are the 3 people that have inspired you the most lately? With what?

Not only recently, but for the past 22 years, my mother and brother have been my inspiration with their warrior spirit, the love that they have for everything they do and the patience and faith they bless me with, every time I decide to follow a certain goal. I was also recently inspired by “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wild.

What did you want to show with this project?

On the first of March in school we would always compete on how many martenitsi we had. We tried to measure them up with our elbows. This tradition used to wake us kids up from our winter sleep and excited us for the fruits on the trees, the seeking of storks and the fun spring games in the rain. I do hope that with my work for this project, I managed to get more people acquainted with the idea of what it is to be a kid in Bulgaria, waiting impatiently for the beginning of spring.

Did you learn something new from this project?

I learned that martenitsi are also popular in Moldova and Albania, which was new information for me. 

How would you advertise Bulgaria to somebody, who has never been here?

As a beautiful, diverse and mystical country, which still hides fairy tales in its woods.

T-Shirts with Mira’s design can now be exclusively purchased at Gifted Sofia – 24 Ivan Denkoglou Str. 

You can also find Mira on Instagram.