August 25, 1999
Young artist,Old World style
Macedonian teen exhibits work at annual Downtown Art Fair
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Ivanco Talevski of Macedonia discovered last Saturday that the streets of American are paved with gold. Or green at least.
At 16, Talevski was the youngest vendor at Traverse City's annual downtown art fair but that did not stop passerbys from commissioning a quick portrait or from buying his paintings. His first time ever displaying his work for sale and his first taste of summertime street fairs proved a success for this serious art student.
"Portraits and figure painting are my thing," said Talevski, who speaks six languages, including English, and understands four others. "I like the psychology of the human being and while these portraits are fast stuff I still talk with the person first before I start drawing."
Talevski has been in the United States for just two months and is looking ahead to spending his high school years at the Interlochen Academy for the Arts. He intended to stay just for the school's summer camp program, but applied for and was accepted for the academy's full program. He is thrilled by the opportunity to study at Interlochen, continuing his in-depth art education that started five years ago in his homeland.
"I am excited to study at Interlochen, very happy to start something new in America," said Talevski, who has studied art seriously since the sixth- grade. "I only came for the summer but I asked if I could stay because of the opportunity. It is very hard to make a living as an artist in Macedonia."
Macedonia, part of the former Soviet Union, has been in the news recently as the destination of hundreds of thousands of refugees of the former NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. However, when Talevski left in June for America, he left a country that was calm, handling the refugee situation without strain. His hometown of Bitola is as peaceful as Traverse City, he said. People in Macedonia, however, are struggling economically as the country adjusts to privatization.
"My mother is unemployed right now and my father works a number of jobs," said Talevski, who may not be able to see his parents for years because of the cost. "The whole country is having economic hard times now."
After years of study, including time at a residential school for design and find arts in Macedonia, Talevski acquired an extensive portfolio, which included paintings, both portraits and surrealistic abstracts, ceramics, sculpture and drawings. Some of that portfolio he displayed at the art fair.
As Interlochen professor Martin Drexler has worked with Talevski all summer, he quickly discovered the breadth and depth of Talevski's talent. Drexler was excited to find someone with so much talent and training. When Talevski approached him about staying for more schooling, Drexler made sure it happened.
"He is technically very good and he wants to start finding out what he is going to do," said Martin Drexler, director of visual arts at Interlochen. "It's like someone who knows proper sentence structure but does not know what the words are going to be. Plus he's a great kid."
Talevski will be unique at Interlochen because he has also studied traditional Russian and Balkan art techniques such as egg tempura, gold leafing and icons. Drexler wants to tap that knowledge and share it with other art students.
"He has that Old World mastery of things that most American students don't have," Drexler said. "More than someone who can draw or paint well, he is someone who will bring a lot to the academy because of his personality and training."