About

 

Iordanka Karaivanova is an artist residing in Lake Mary, FL known for her realism and abstract art, custom portraits, and designs. She was born in Bulgaria in 1984 and moved with her family to the United States the beginning of 1999, after winning the U.S.A. Green Card Lottery in 1998. Graduating from Edgewater High School in Orlando, she later obtained an Associate in Arts Degree in General Education from Seminole State College in Lake Mary, and a Bachelor of Arts in Business (Management Concentration) and Minor in Economics from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL.  

Ms. Karaivanova’s beautiful abstract and realism paintings are diverse and vibrant, without limiting her artistic abilities to a certain style or medium. Embracing change, she loves expanding her art talent beyond a traditional medium by learning new techniques when working with different materials, which she believes makes her a better Artist, a constant learner. 

Iordanka is dedicated to creating and working on her art each day. She believes that just like an athlete trains and exercises daily to stay in shape, in order to get ready for a game or performance, so too an artist should train and exercise their artistic skills each day. Therefore, Iordanka works on her art daily and produces realism pieces while at a location or from her personal travel photographs when at her studio. She is a dedicated en plein air painter and sketcher, and loves observing nature and her surroundings; it helps sharpen her skills and drives her imagination. While her realism artwork is created by observation, most of her abstract paintings are formed with brush strokes movements based on a feeling of colors, which she uses as a foundation for coming up with a design of the artwork. She uses various mediums for her art including oil, pastel, graphite, acrylic, and mix media with implementing materials like dried flowers and plants, grains, metal, wood, and fabric amongst others. 

Artist Iordanka considers herself a self-taught artist, because she dove in creating art before learning anything about it nor knowing “proper” techniques. Karaivanova showed passion for art from an early age. By age four she was sculpting figurines from clay, making her own toys and creating art pieces. At age eight, she drew portraits with graphite pencils of her grandparents and neighbors, progressing to aquarelle and later to oil medium. Her artwork has beenexhibited at school functions and local events throughout the years, including Orlando Museum of Art 1st Thursdays event, CityArts, Lake Mary - Heathrow Festival of the Arts, and New Smyrna Beach Flamingo Follies – a Holiday Art Show.

CV

Education

2014-2018	BA, Business (Management Concentration) with Economics minor, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL
2013-2014	AA, General Education, Seminole State College, Lake Mary, FL
2004-2007	Seminole State College, Lake Mary, FL (Art and Paralegal courses)

Exhibitions & Festivals

2020	CityArts, 14 Annual Sensory Overload, Orlando, FL
2019	FusionFest, Orlando, FL
2019	Live Art Charity Auction, Mels BGC, Orlando, FL
2019	CityArts, 13 Annual Sensory Overload, Orlando, FL
2019	Lake Mary - Heathrow Festival of the Arts 32nd Annual, Lake Mary, FL
2018	8th Annual "Altamonte Art, Craft, & Wine Festival", Altamonte Springs, FL
2018	27th Annual New Smyrna Beach Flamingo Follies – a Holiday Art Show, New Smyrna Beach, FL
2018	Orlando Museum of Art 1st Thursdays event: Travel, Orlando, FL
2018	Wine Art Wednesday, Lake Mary, FL
2018	CityArts Factory, 12 Annual Sensory Overload, Orlando, FL
2017	CityArts Factory, 11 Annual Sensory Overload, Orlando, FL
2017	WineART Wednesday, Lake Mary, FL
2016	Solo Art Exhibit at The Peacock Lounge, Sanford, FL
2016	WineART Wednesday, Lake Mary, FL
2016	CityArts Factory, Sensory Overload 10 Art Show, Orlando, FL
2016	Reggae on the Block at Downtown Orlando, FL
2015	CityArts Factory, Orlando, FL
2015	WineART Wednesday, Lake Mary, FL
2015	Central Florida Earth Day, Lake Eola, Orlando, FL

Travel/Foreign Languages Spoken

Fluent in Bulgarian and English. Traveled to China, Israel, Jordan, Bulgaria, in 2019. Traveled to France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Monaco, Vatican City, United Kingdom, in 2017.