Bratislava is the city that hosts one of the most famous Biennal of illustration, BIB (Biennal of Illustration Bratislava). I have been a faithful attendee for the past 20 years. I went there in 2005 carrying my sleeping baby girl in a sling throughout the exhibition.

Of all the hundreds of illustrations, I was touched the most by the work of Argentinian illustrator Valeria Cis http://www.valeriacis.com . I couldn’t stop looking at the beautiful illustrations to the book Hola, Roberta! It was a story of a town cow visiting her friend in the countryside. They were having a picnic together and talked and then waved goodbye to each other when the visit was over. I admired the gentle yet witty depiction of the two friends and nature. I bought a catalog of the illustrations and looked up the contact info about the illustrator. I wrote her an e-mail. She responded! Then I gave her a surprise call! 🙂

The amazing thing was the warm and loving response of this excellent illustrator, Valeria Cis, to a stranger calling her from a small Central European country. We started to write each other from time to time and shared our stories and daily joys and struggles. We found out that Valeria had a son born the same month and year as my daughter Dorotka!

Then one day I found an extraordinary treasure in my mailbox. An original illustration by Valeria! It was truly something! Painted with my favourite colours (turquoise and green) at a cover of an ancient book. I treasure it and everyday delight in it. It sits at the top of my inspiration wall, in my most favourite room — my workshop/reading room.

Valeria was already at that time an established and successful illustrator. She had her web page and a workshop. As I dedicated my time to raising my kids and homeschooling them, I admired her and her work form afar, keeping in touch from time to time, meanwhile taking my classes of painting at the private school of Mgr. art Soňa Herényiová Belanová.

During the pandemic I felt as if I was given an unprecedented time to make one of my dreams true, which was to write and illustrate a book for children. So I did just that. The book is now complete ready to be published. I am in the process of finding a publishing house. You can see some of these illustrations in the section BOOK on my website. After I finished homeschooling and my girls started attending “normal” school, I decided to pursue my passion for painting and visual arts full time.

Quite naturally I became more in touch with Valeria, who almost at the same time decided to paint full time as well! We have been amazed at the similarities in our thinking, values, dreams, and goals. We started sharing our knowledge and developments, encouraging one another. What an accountability partner Valeria is! I admire her wisdom, honesty and kindness. At the moment, we recommend and share books about making art and “Making it in the Art World” 🙂 (which is also the title of a great book by Brainard Carey which I recommend! https://a.co/d/3vtGQfy)

I am enjoy tremendously sharing my findings with Valeria and cherish every single piece of her advice. Artists should stick together. We are a community of world transformers, folks! Transforming the world into a kinder, more loving, thoghtful and beautiful place.