Holiday Gift-Guide: custom prints by Biliana Velkova

I want you all to meet Miss Biliana. She's originally from Bulgaria but currently lives and works in Saskatoon, Canada. Many of you probably remember her story of the Fall that I posted here about a month ago.

Biliana is an artist who works in a variety of media: performance, video, drawing and is currently represented by the Jeffrey Boone Gallery. I love her feminist streak and I am absolutely obsessed with her Original Knockoffs series. The drawings copy popular fashion brands and turn them into beautiful watercolors. Like a lot of Biliana's work, the drawings in the series comment on contemporary pop-culture and the unattainable standards of fashion and beauty we are constantly inundated with.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: who are you, where do you live and work, how do you spend your Sundays?


My name is Biliana Velkova. I am currently living in the Paris of the prairies (also known as Saskatoon, Canada) where I am finishing a Masters of Fine Arts degree. Sundays are usually reserved for pure indulgences such as cooking rich French food (it helps in the sub zero climate that I currently live in), eating chocolate and drinking wine. There might be some reading done here and there too.

What inspires your work?






Usually my work is inspired by the everyday. Or wanting to escape the everyday.

Does your Bulgarian background influence your work in any way? How do you feel about that?

Very much so, even though it is not apparent on a first glance. Once I start talking about my work, the influences of growing up in Eastern Europe under Communism, imagining another world beyond the wall and never really finding it once I left become very real. I feel fine about it, it is part of me and I think I wear it well.

Where and how can people see more of your work?

The best source would be my website and flickr.

Thank you Petya, I am so excited to be in your blog again.

***

NO. Thank YOU, Miss B!

I think Biliana's prints would make a fantastic holiday or birthday gift, don't you?! Biliana is wonderfully flexible and is actually happy to produce custom prints. How awesome is that! The pieces are available for $125 but, check this out, How to Marry a Bulgarian readers get 10% off!!! Again, that's for a custom print of a fashion label of your choice!!!

If you are interested, please feel free to contact me or email Biliana at biliana.velkova [@] gmail [.] com.

Holiday Gift-Guide: Bulgarian Rose Water

I got a note from Yo, in which she suggested that Bulgarian rose water is actually a really good Bulgaria-themed gift to give:

Yep, I know it sounds tacky with all its Bay Ganyo connotations, but actually natural Bulgarian rose water beats all fancy cosmetic lotions. It smells great, it is refreshing and girls love it. It can also be used in cakes or as fragrance to cold drinking water on a hot day.

I completely agree! I use rose water as toner and I find it very refreshing and gentle. I also use it as face mist... which is great when I'm having an especially long day (like today).


I've always wondered why people here in the States don't use rose water much. All good cosmetic brands put it in their products but the water itself is not popular... and it's SO CHEAP. I hate to go all Naomi Wolf on you but it does seem to me that here in the States every bit of a woman's daily routine has been totally hi-jacked by the cosmetic industry. There's a product to help you "achieve results" in areas of your life that you were not even aware of. They first make you think that you should be shrinking your pores/making your skin glow/smoothing out your wrinkles and then, of course, they present to you products that do just that. How wonderful!

I am good at noticing these things but I am not good at completely distancing myself from the process. So here I am... pushing Bulgarian rose water like my life depends on it... But I keep telling myself that's somehow OK because rose water actually IS a multi-functional product AND it costs a fraction of the price of brand-name cosmetics.

Of course, if you are in Bulgaria, you can find it in any random drugstore for pennies. If you need to buy it online, though, check out this website that sells only certified products and has a delicious recipe for rose water lemonade. Sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it!?

Photo by: eesti

***
If you like this blog, please subscribe to it via RSS and consider becoming a Follower. It helps me keep track of who's reading and provides a fun way for you guys to get to know each other!

Holiday Gift-Guide: Stephan Doitschinoff

As the holidays get nearer and nearer, I've got Christmas presents on my mind. I am always on the look-out for Bulgaria-related gifts that are not too obvious or nationalistic-y. I hate it when people give history books or flag-decorated objects but I also know that many of my non-Bulgarian friends are fascinated by all things Bulgarian. So I look for items that have some connection to Bulgaria but are not necessarily a proclamation of my Balkan pride (because I've got none).

This past weekend I was translating a fascinating interview with a Brazilian-Bulgarian artist that Ivailo Spasov did for Edno Magazine a few months back.



Stephan Doitschinoff's grandfather immigrated to Brazil in 1945 and settled in Sao Paolo where their family has lived ever since. Stephan's art is influenced by his religious upbringing and Brazilian folklore. I especially like his murals that he paints on the facades of old rural houses. Really amazing stuff.

Gestalten recently published an album of Doitschinoff's work and I kept thinking, wow, that would make a fantastic Christmas present. Kyle and I can never get enough of art books so I am very excited about this one.The book is available for purchase through the Gestalten website but is currently on sale on Amazon. Definitely check it out and let me know what you think!

Also, if you have Bulgaria-related Christmas gift ideas, please let me know! I think it would be really cool to put together a gift-guide to help each other out, right!

Nostalgic Consumerism

I made mish-mash last night. It was alright but it wasn't GREAT. If it's fat-free, it ain't feta. That's all I've got to say about this.

Today I've got shopska salad on my mind. And I'm back to square one, because we don't have good Bulgarian feta. Kyle and I talked about this and agreed that if we don't have good feta, there's no point in even trying. It just won't be the same.



Someone told me that my best bet is to look for a Middle Eastern store in Memphis because they are very likely to have at least some Bulgarian stuff there.

In the meantime, I have a question for you... where do you guys shop for Bulgarian stuff? Any websites you would recommend? And, just out of curiosity, do you share my tendencies of shopping/cooking Bulgarian food when you are missing Bulgaria?