If ever there were a poster girl for Place des Arts, Hristina Hristozova would be it.
A stay-at-home mom who moved from her native Bulgaria to Coquitlam four years ago, Hristozova got her kids involved in the Maillardville facility a few years back.
But, last September, when they entered kindergarten and Grade 1, Hristozova finally had some time of her own and felt the need to get back to her creative roots.
With the encouragement of her family, she signed up in January for painting and drawing sessions with Sue Cowan and Laurie Thompson and had a burst of confidence when she saw the results. "They are really very, very good teachers. They covered all the basics," she said.
A self-taught acrylics artist, Hristozova never had any formal training; however, with Cowan and Thompson as her guides, "they helped me to understand what I was doing."
There are similar stories from Place des Arts students. And tomorrow, the current visual arts learners will open a new show in the Atrium, titled Art Feats, to demonstrate what they've been taught over the past year in drawing, painting, fibre arts, pottery and ceramic sculpture.
As well, students in the Art Enhancement Workshop - under the tutelage of Don Portelance, a retired art teacher from Centennial secondary who helped to found Place des Arts - will have a concurrent display in the Leonore Peyton Salon, called Images and Ideas.
Hristozova will have three pieces in Art Feats and it will be the first time she's put her work up for public viewing. "It's overwhelming to see it in a gallery," said Hristozova, who is now enrolled in a fine arts program at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver.
The opening reception for Art Feats and Images and Ideas is on Thursday, June 12 from 7 to 9 p.m. Both shows end on July 4. Visit placedesarts.ca.
