When gray and muted tones start predominating in life one should find a place lit by the rays of the sun and draw from the abundance with closed eyes. Then bold dreams are born just like the light that shines for everyone.

Despite having ten siblings, the first thing Janet is used to see every morning are the faces of her broad family of abandoned children. At a very young age she started living in institutions and four years ago she moved to transitional housing. "I just want to be a happy person," she says, summarizing her dreams.

Janet Chavdarova is among hundred high school graduates who celebrated their prom this year in the company of President Rumen Radev and his wife in the Boyana Residence in Sofia. The presidential initiative "Support a Dream" helps young people who grew up in social institutions continue their education or start work. A graduate of the National High School for Performing and Screen Arts in Plovdiv, Janet now pursues her goal of studying advertising design in the National Academy of Arts.

"I dance, I draw, and I sing," she says about herself. “When I was living in the Maria-Louisa children institution, we used to go to drawing lessons in the Old Town of Plovdiv. We went there once a week and it was very inspirational. I have also been a choreographer for a long time. I've taught dancing to children and adults and that's the other thing that really gives me happiness and freedom. I like all kinds of dances but I am mostly attracted to hip-hop.”

Janet has been drawing since she was six years old and her skills have impressed prominent citizens in Plovdiv. With the cooperation of the municipality, they organized a charity concert in 2018 to support her dream as the goal was raising funds for her to go on a painting course. The talented girl managed to sell all her works at the exhibition accompanying the event and the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in the city gave her a helping hand. Janet has also participated in the creation of a light installation in the neighborhood of Stolipinovo in Plovdiv as part of the LUMIXX festival.

"I am a very abstract person,” she says about herself. “I love everything and I don't have a particular favorite painting, sculpture or anything like that. But Rembrandt's Night Watch is special to me and it gives me motivation to continue. I am currently working on a Japanese-style painting on silk. It takes a long time and I hope it will work out in the end because it will be exhibited in a gallery in the capital city of Sofia.”

However, art closed between four walls does not fully satisfy the freedom-loving artist, who dreams that one day her works will be exhibited in an outdoor public place. “Somewhere where many people can see and appreciate them. It doesn't matter where - as long as it's not in a building," she adds.

Janet prefers using vivid colors in her art. According to her, Bulgaria also needs more colors.

"It should be more colorful because I think that currently each of us is surrounded by the grayness of everyday life,” she says. “Every person needs a little color to be happier. I hope that one day I would inspire someone with my paintings.”

For this purpose, Janet is ready to open a new page in her life and to devote herself to art in the academy. This page starts like this:

"With a smile. The thing I would really like to paint on this new page is a happy life. I need to be calmer. I want to get accepted in the academy, to learn, to meet new people. Above all, to be independent, to rely on myself; to be an independent lady."

And once again she utters her dream: "I just want to be a happy person."

Text: Diana Tsankova /based on report by Mira Stefanova, BNR - "Horizont"/

English: Al. Markov

Photo: bgmf.eu, @LUMMIXPLOVDIV, private library, plovdiv.bg