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'Inspiration is all around' Bulgarian husband and wife are new artists-in-residence at St. Margaret's School in Tappahannock.
Bulgarian husband and wife are new artists-in-residence at St. Margaret's School in Tappahannock.
Date published: 10/1/2002 By ROB HEDELT THE NEW ARTISTS-in-resi- dence at St. Margaret's School were born and artistically trained in Bulgaria, created award-winning paintings in Malta and recently put their artistic stamp on huge sails in the Northern Neck. They're Ignat "Konst" Konstantinov and his wife, Konstantina. For the next year, the couple will share their old-world background and ever-changing styles with the students and the community served by the private day and boarding school of 160 students in Tappahannock. I was curious how a couple with artistic roots in such far-flung places as Bulgaria and Malta would interact with art students in a small boarding school on the Rappahannock River in Essex County, so I decided to visit and see. I met the Konstantinovs as they started their morning pottery class with a dozen or so students whose art backgrounds ranged from extensive to none. Konst, with a natty dark tie tucked into his pottery apron, spoke slowly but emphatically opening the class with a short lesson on inspiration. Showing a picture he'd found of a small boat steered by a single boatman, he showed how this had given him and Konstantina the inspiration for a much more detailed and biblically inspired painting. "The artist looks for inspiration wherever he or she can find it: in the sky, the clouds, the water," he said. "Then you take the idea at the center of that inspiration and build on it." Standing at the end of the small classroom that looked out over the wind-blown waves of the Rappahannock River, he added, "Here, in this place, inspiration is all around you." To that end, the day's assignment was for the students to make a small, simple sketch and then begin transferring it into small rectangles of clay before them on the round tables filling the room. The assignment provided an opportunity to get the students' reactions to their new teachers. "They're different from most art teachers," said junior Lindsay Swinson of Tappahannock. "Instead of insisting that your art follow rules or that it look a certain way, they help you pursue your own ideas, to find yourself in your art."
Date published: 10/1/2002
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