ABOUT
When I was a child I would always see shadows lurking behind corners, too shy to exist in the world. As an adult I’ve given these creatures a home in my art. My work is only the closest I will ever get to bringing the worlds in my head to life.
Hi, I’m Mihaela and I am a Bulgarian artist based in Rotterdam. I often borrow ideas from human emotions and connections. I want to capture experiences and characteristics which is why I am the most passionate about creating characters and worlds for them to exist in. I thrive working digitally and believe that a good space for my work and ideas to exist in is through video games/board games and comics/graphic novels. Style wise, I draw inspiration from horror, fantasy and feelings and combine all three into mysterious yet whimsical spaces. I work with dark colour schemes, however I love experimenting and bringing a playful niche to my art.
”CREATURES OF THE NIGHT” PLAYING CARDS
2025, thick paper, 2.5 x 3.5 inches
The design of every card in this deck has been loosely inspired by nocturnal animals/fantastical creatures! With this project I have combined my biggest inspirations into one: human connection (in the form of a game), playfulness & horror.
“THE FEAR OF DOGS”
2024, digital visual essay
This project is strongly inspired from my childhood and my journey with anxiety as an adult.
”SHARING IS CARING” BOARD GAME
2024, wood & carton & paper & plastic
“Sharig is Caring” is a project on which I collaborated with Lili Szabó which aims to represent the struggle of adopting community building and more leftist anarchist views in a capitalist system. The true objective of the game is not to win but to display a new perspective in terms of political systems, to spark discussion on an alternative to the world we live in now in a playful manner.
”WAVE BY WAVE” COMIC
2023, A5 paper, 62 pages, extracts
The subject of this comic is grief. I wanted to represent each of the 5 stages of grief by using different art styles and colours.
The story starts when our main character Sal loses her best friend Lana in a tragic accident. As the story progresses through each stage (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) Sal experiences growth.
I created this project as a way to bring hope to anyone experiencing grief in any way shape or form. Even though there is no universal sequence of events when it comes to these emotions, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.