Spanish artist Pablo Picasso once said, “There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.” With this in mind, students can experience the energy and power of the visual world of artist Neli Ouzounova.
Ouzounova’s paintings, “White Rock Trail I,” “White Rock Trail II” and “The Park Closes at Sunset,” will be displayed through Feb. 15 at the Advisement Resource and Careers Center (ARC) developmental gallery area. The gallery is going into its fourth year and offers changing exhibits of art by ETSU students.
“It provides a safe place for student art work,” Caroline Jackson, ARC counselor, said. “A lot of students don’t take advantage of going to Slocumb Galleries or Reece Museum, but the bookstore and other departments in this area bring in a lot of student traffic, so the gallery here exposes students to different media.”
According to Jackson, it is important for students to come by to visit the artwork because it gives them an opportunity to view fellow students’ work. For the artists themselves, the ARC gallery offers a place for them to be on stage.
“The drama department has plays, speech has debates, and journalism has the East Tennessean,” Jackson said. “This gallery is an outlet for art.”
Ouzounova found inspiration for the paintings while on a weekend trip to Buffalo Mountain. While surrounded by fallen leaves and the wilderness beauty, she said, “It was as if I was removed from all the burdens of the everydays, and I just saw, felt and breathed in the nature that was all around.”
Jackson, who said that the paintings have been on display for nearly a month now, added that she liked the “clean way the colors separate and the cleanness of the lines.”
Ouzounova explained that there are symbols included in her paintings, although these may not necessarily be meaningful to the viewer.
“Painting becomes a condensed vision of my life, my existence, where I can dream of fulfillment and of aspiration,” she said.
Ouzounova, a native of Bulgaria, is currently pursuing a master of fine arts degree in ETSU’s department of art and design.
She is a graduate of the Nikolai Rainov College for Plastic Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria. While there, she studied painting, iconography, sculpture and printmaking and became a member of the Yemeni Cultural Circle for the Arts.
She holds a B.F.A. from Western Kentucky University and has exhibited her artwork in such cities as Tehran, Iran, San’a, Yemen and Bowling Green, Ky.
Although she has traveled all over the world, Ouzounova said, “ETSU is a wonderful experience . because of the people I have met here, the professors that have offered advice and stimulation for my works.”
The ARC is located on the second floor of the Culp Center and is open from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The artwork is usually exhibited for two months.
“We welcome art from any student,” Jackson said. “We do ask the artists to put up an artist statement and a price list for their paintings, unless they have a piece that they do not want to sell. We have had administrators buy some of the work.”
For more information or to submit artwork, call Jackson at 439-4098.

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