April 18, 2007 Reno Gazette-Journal: Neighborhoods
'Where skyscraper meets sagebrush'
Artist finds inspiration in man-made features
By Kristin Larsen
Where others might look at the unfinished bridge in Washoe Valley and see a construction project, artist Rossitza Todorova sees an abandoned relic akin to ancient Greek structures. She jokingly calls them "pre-ruins."
It's the inspiration for her drawing "Highway and Bridge Stand Unfinished" featured in the Northwest Reno Library Gallery. "Windscapes" - Todorova's exhibit of black, white and gray drawings created with brushes, pens and ink will be featured through May 25.
Todorova discovers her artistic inspirations locally. She moved from Bulgaria to Northern Nevada 10 years ago, and said she's fallen in love with the desert and how it changes.
"Man leaves a mark on the landscape," Todorova said. "Unlike many, I find that to be beautiful - where skyscraper meets sagebrush."
Above the tunnel's mouth
Another experience instigated the creation of her piece titled, "Sitting above the tunnel's mouth." In an area of rural Nevada, Todorova said the roar of a train hurtling down the tracks gave her enough warning to run to the train tunnel's roof just in time to watch the train passing below.
"You can sit on a concrete block with nature all around, and watch this force of man beneath your feet," Todorova said. "You don't often get to experience machinery that close."
The unpredictable kinks and curves of nature appear woven throughout architectural lines to create vast, overlapping landscapes. Todorova said every landscape has wilderness in it for her.
"I don't think you can think of landscape without nature, even though man has a finger in it," Todorova said.
No focal point
You won't find a focal point in Todorova's art. She wants your eye to move through the piece and not find a resting spot.
She said she allows viewers' minds to fill in the vacancies and tries to draw their eyes to shadows with dense details - and "hopefully, you find a different path every time."
Todorova said she had to reinvent her art after she graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in December 2005 with a bachelor's degree in fine arts. That's when she created the first piece in the exhibit, "Crossroads," a chaotic mishmash of lines and shadows.
Noticing surroundings
Todorova said she began noticing her surroundings - clouds and sagebrush - more after seeing Phyllis Shafer's paintings of Nevada's landscape at the Stremmel Gallery on South Virginia Street.
Todorova hopes the audience will sense motion in her art. She weaves lines that pass over and behind each other in an effort to create optical illusions, so the viewer never quite knows what is closest and what is farthest away.
From Todorova's perspective, motion isn't limited to nature or mechanical objects. Civilization is like a dirt road in the wilderness - if a path isn't used constantly, it will be reclaimed by its surroundings. That's the idea behind her work "The Metal Was Solid But the Ground Sunk Beneath Our Feet."
"Man is constantly reclaiming land, but nature is also," Todorova said. "Just because the building is solid, doesn't mean it doesn't move."
Todorova adores art so much that when she's not creating her own, she's stewarding the art of others by working for the Nevada Arts Council as an assistant. The council tries to bring exhibits to populations that wouldn't normally get to enjoy them.
"(Art) takes from the world and shows the world back to you," Todorova said. "You may not be able to see the world without art."
Copyright (c) Reno Gazette-Journal. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
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