About me
"I create hand-written icons in the traditional Byzantine manner, combining faith, history, and personal craftsmanship."
I’m Milka, an artist living on the island of Crete with my husband and two sons. Here I have been studying and practising the art of icon writing in the traditional Byzantine manner, working on commission for churches, monasteries and for private individuals. The long history of Cretan iconography and the bright light of this Mediterranean island make it the perfect place to pore over the old masters and join the centuries-old lineage of icon scribes who perpetuate this iconographic heritage.
Origins &
Early Artistic Formation
My origins are in Bulgaria, where I was born and spent my childhood. The visual memories of the city of Sofia, its surrounding nature, historical monuments, and ancient churches formed the foundations of my early aesthetic vocabulary. It was there that I attended my first art lessons and spent endless hours sketching and drawing, acquiring at an early age a skill that I have come to appreciate more deeply as time passes.
As a young teenager, I moved with my family to the island of Cyprus, where I continued exploring and practising painting and sculpture in various studios in Nicosia. Those years further nurtured both my artistic curiosity and my sensitivity to the visual language of the Mediterranean world.
A Dialogue Between East and West
My artistic journey later continued in Florence, Italy, where I studied Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and completed my BA degree in 2006. There I immersed myself in the study of the Western masters, while at the same time becoming increasingly interested in the liturgical art of the Christian East and in the subtle dialogue that has existed between Eastern and Western artistic traditions throughout history.
As an Orthodox Christian, I was always deeply attentive to the visual language of the Church and to the different ways icons and religious paintings convey the spiritual reality they seek to portray. During those years, a quiet desire to learn iconography slowly took root within me. Yet, although my understanding matured, I did not yet feel ready to undertake such a path. I had not found a teacher, nor perhaps the inner maturity required for such work.
My years in Italy, France and the United Kingdom, where I completed an MA in Theatre at the University of the Arts London in 2011, further shaped my artistic and personal outlook. Alongside visual art, I developed a practice in performance work and with it a strong focus on the way an audience perceives and experiences a work emotionally as well as visually. I also witnessed what it means to live as an Orthodox Christian in the contemporary West: carrying an ancient faith within modern life.
Over time, I came to understand iconography as a unique form of storytelling: the telling of the ultimate story of our faith through a visual language that unites tradition and originality. Although it follows established canons, every iconographer leaves traces of a personal imprint and inner life, even when faithfully rendering a historical prototype.
My work today is therefore the fruit of many years of observation, study, and quiet return to a love for art that I have always carried within me. It is also inseparable from my life as an Orthodox woman, wife, and mother living day by day, while pursuing a lifestyle that strives for what is timeless, or rather, eternal.