Antoaneta Melnikova-Hillman

Biography
     

Antoaneta Melnikova-Hillman Is a self-taught artist. She considers herself  to be half Bulgarian, half Russian and 36%  American.   Her grandparents lost everything in the Russian Revolution,  fleeing for their lives to Turkey and later to Bulgaria.  Antoaneta was born in Pleven, Bulgaria, where she began her career in the arts writing poetry,  influenced as was her father by the beauty of Russian literature and language.  She published two books on poetry and her poems and stories appeared in various newspapers and magazines throughout Bulgaria.

Antoaneta began to experiment with oils at the age of eighteen. Her works first appeared in group exhibitions and later individually in Bulgaria.   She exhibited her work in Cyprus with a series of paintings dedicated to women and love, and since coming to the United States of America she has broadened her skills to encompass encaustic and acrylic mediums.  Her work here has been displayed in a number of exhibitions in the greater DFW area and her paintings are in private collections in Bulgaria, Italy, Cyprus, and USA.
    

A resident of the USA since 2001, Antoaneta has become accustomed to a new home and culture here in America where she continues her career as an artist. 

                 About-Conversation

The conversation starts with us and it is endless . We talk with mimics, jesters, words, sounds and colors. I paint the silent conversation of my inner world and putting it on canvas is like writhing a book. And reading a book is also a conversation , between the author and the reader. My book is written with colors, instead of words, but I know that there are so many people out there who can read the colors, and make the conversation happened. . Ironically, I had a dream- to be a talk- show host.The artist daily work is done in silence and without audience, but there is still a conversation going on and still a lot's of ideas and thoughts can be broadcast through paint and canvas, and reach the many souls who wont to have a simple -Conversation.

               Artist statment

   I don't question my desire to paint but am thankful that it exists.  It gives my life direction.   Leonardo’s words that painting is poetry, seen rather than heard,  is reflected in my attitude towards painting.  I put the continuity of the idea and the transformation of reality in to a new world at the start of every work.  Chagall, Van Gogh, Dali and Klimt are the artists who have had a major influence on me. I believe that admiration of the great artists is the first step on the road to art.  I can't separate poetry from painting, and this is the duality that brings to existence my bodies of work like Balance, Ice House and Garden of Wish.
         I have been drawn to the beauty of minimal but exact expression in the form of art and for me this is the way to say much, if not everything.