Maiastra Bird

Concept

2005 - present: full-time professional visual artist, designer, illustrator and teacher

I consider myself a complete visual artist, as I don't resume only to painting, but am also a teacher, a designer and an illustrator.

I come from a large family of visual artists, so art has always been the most important part of my life. Everything that surrounds me is an inspiration and a drive to create art. I am teacher with over 20 years of successful experience. I am also a designer, designing costumes and accessories, but also interiors. Recently I have started illustrating children's books, which is very satisfying and fulfilling for my career. I am currently preparing my PhD in visual literature, combining my two passions: arts and literature.

During University, I discovered Hundertwasser's art, and it had a huge impact upon my artwork. I admired his sense of space in his works, but also his activism for the environment. I often find inspiration in the decorativity of Klimt, but also in the expressionism of Schiele, or Modigliani. The surrealism and dadaism have always fascinated and inspired me, Rene Magritte being one of the most intelligent art figure of the 20th century, along with Marcel Duchamp.

Dr. Doina Pauleanu, the art critic and curator of the Art Museum of Constanta (d.2020): "Teodora Soos built in time, a personal style, which makes her artwork, whichever technique she chooses, to distinguish itself from all the others. Teodora literally succeds being original, and she does that with serenity and candor in her search of transcendent themes."

Many of my artpieces are mixed-media, combined in a maximalist way - l always think of sustainable materials as l am an environmentalist and l want to participate in keeping the balance of our planet. A bass-relief surface has always challenged me to paint and vice-versa, so l often combine the two. I layer an artwork for days, to assure the durability, my unique technique that l have developed since my five years of university, and completed during my Master's degree. During MA's I studied Costume Performing, and the variety of materials l used have helped me interact with materials in a more dynamic manner.
I choose a variety of themes, and even the figurative ones l treat in a semiabstract manner.

My Artworks are in private collections worldwide: Romania, USA, France, U.K, Barbados, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Italy etc.

Here is a personal quote, that represents my body of work:
"My art is joyful and playful, for the eternal optimists to keep the magic of dreaming!"