Let’s picture a world, full of cartoon characters and our favorite kids’ films. That is the world of the girl that we are to meet you with today – Yoanna Viktorova. She began to draw during her childhood and at 6 years she has opted for the professional path of art. She says she always knew that drawing would provide independence to her and the ability to take care of herself. Yoanna is a marvelous rebuttal of the saying that no musician provides for the house. She busts yet another myth – that young Bulgarians cannot find their professional growth in Bulgaria, but flee away through Terminal 2 of Sofia Airport. In fact talent, will and persistence can really result in success here. Yoanna sees success as a picture drawn by her and also giving pleasure to her, no matter the opinion of the others. At the same time she finds inspiration hidden anywhere around – a good book or a movie, nature, meetings with folks and why not her own emotions and thoughts…

Yoanna publishes her works on her own website and a Facebook page, but in early-January one of the pictures unexpectedly gained huge popularity after its sharing to a webpage with over half a million views. Here is what the inspiration of the young girl for the Repentance was:

"That blood trace in the picture should have been more like a red thread. Just like the title says, I was inspired by repentance. One night the sleep wouldn’t come and my mind decided to throw me into thoughts, a bit dark… and memories too."

Yoanna drew the thing a year ago, during a tough period of her life when she reconsidered many of her actions. Those who saw the picture wrote to the girl with gratitude for having drawn their exact emotion at the moment. Joanna thinks art is perceived differently by different people and the same work might carry a various messages.

The young artist also illustrates books, draws cartoons and computer games characters. The company which hired her got really impressed by her talent and today Yoanna stands behind the images of over ten popular games. She also writes poetry about the things that thrill her at the moment. Which are her favorite cartoon characters and how far animation has gone nowadays – Yoanna tells us more:

"I have quite many favorite characters from Cartoon Network and Fox Kids – the channels that I grew up with. I also like anime. I am not sure that things are worse now, it’s just a bit different. However, the charm of the old Disney cartoons is somehow missed by many. It’s just that new technologies make the process so much faster…"

Cartoons are changing, but they are still useful to the kids. If they watch the right films they can learn a lot about real virtues and values in life. They will keep their faith in good.

We wish good luck to Yoanna, hoping that her story has managed to bring back hope on a possible future for everyone in Bulgaria. All we need is will and persistence on our way, no matter the opinion of the crowd.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev