From Bulgaria to Korea, one family's journey through art

Amid the bustle of arriving passengers pushing trolleys loaded with suitcases and duty-free shopping bags at the arrival hall of Incheon International Airport on June 27, one sight drew curious glances: Tape-wrapped boxes and cardboard tubes stacked on a cart.

The paintings arrived in Korea after an 8,000-kilometer journey from Bulgaria with a family visiting the country for the first time.

They were neither for sale nor souvenirs for friends, but part of a collection of 30 paintings, mostly acrylics, made especially for people in Korea.

“I kept the project a secret, even from people around me, while preparing the paintings with my children because I wanted a Korean audience to see them first,” Lina Patron, a 42-year-old Bulgarian contemporary artist and mother of two young sons and a daughter, told The Korea Herald.

After a year in the making, the paintings finally found their Korean audience at the Geumboseong Art Center in Pyeongchang-dong, Seoul, where they were exhibited from July 1-14 under the title “Geometry of Love.”

Her journey to Korea began at ArtContact Istanbul, an annual international contemporary art fair held in Istanbul, Turkey, in May last year, where she presented not only her own works but also those of her three children in what she described as a “family art exhibition.”

There, the family met a group of Korean artists, including renowned painter Geum Bo-seong, the art center’s owner.

Among the works that caught Geum’s eye was a painting by Patron’s 7-year-old son, Boris, inspired by the zip lines he had ridden in Mauritius. Impressed by the family’s distinctive approach to creating art together, Geum invited them to hold a solo exhibition at his art center the following year.

For Patron, who had never been to Korea before, the invitation was an unexpected honor that she saw as the beginning of a lasting bond with the country.

“I had known about Korea, but ArtContact was the first time I had truly interacted with Koreans. They were far warmer and more supportive than I had expected. Through this exhibition, I hope not only to introduce my country, Bulgaria, to Korean audiences, but also to help build a cultural bridge between Korea and Bulgaria,” she said.

The exhibition showcased the Patron family’s shared artistic journey through paintings created both together and individually. It featured 12 paintings by Boris, his 12-year-old brother George and their 14-year-old sister, Ayana. Throughout its two-week run, visitors were invited to reflect on love in all its forms through works exploring family, art, humanity and love for oneself.

Among the standout pieces was “The Holy Family,” a watercolor Patron completed with her children that celebrates the sanctity of family.

Beneath a star-filled blue sky, five family members stand in a field of flowers beneath a rainbow, with the sun and mountains in the background. Their figures appear to glow as though bathed in light streaming through stained glass.

“Family is connected by invisible threads that bind its members together and keep us on the same path. I believe that bond is incredibly strong and sacred. I intentionally left the faces of the family members undefined because I wanted Korean visitors to see their own families in the painting,” Patron said.

Believing art to be as universal a language as love, Patron incorporated the Glagolitic alphabet into several paintings to share Bulgaria’s cultural heritage with Korean audiences. Created in the ninth century, the ancient script is the oldest known alphabet developed for Slavic languages and laid the foundation for the Cyrillic alphabet used in Bulgaria today.

“If visitors leave the exhibition feeling even a little more connected to themselves, to the people they love, or to another culture, then I feel the exhibition has fulfilled its purpose,” she said.

For the Patron family, the real test came before the exhibition even opened — getting the paintings to Korea.

With no direct flights between the two countries, the family flew from the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to Seoul via Istanbul, a trip that took nearly 24 hours.

Rather than relying on a professional art shipping company, the family transported the paintings themselves, checking the carefully packed canvases into the aircraft’s cargo hold and traveling on the same flight.

“But it was the first time we had ever taken so many paintings to another country, so I barely slept for several days because I was so nervous. Thankfully, everything arrived safely, and it became an unforgettable experience,” she said.

Patron also expressed her gratitude to Geum, saying, “He welcomed us at the airport and helped us unpack the paintings and prepare the exhibition. He treated us not just as artists, but as friends.”

Now nearly five years into her career as an artist, Patron once built a successful career as a pharmacist, joining global pharmaceutical company Pfizer in her mid-30s.

But around that time, she made the life-changing decision to leave the profession and pursue her childhood dream of becoming an artist.

“At first, I painted just as a hobby while working as a pharmacist, but I realized art wasn’t something I could pursue on the side. I didn’t want to wait until it was too late to follow my dream,” she said.

Patron’s artistic talent emerged early. From the age of 8, she won drawing competitions and earned art scholarships, but her parents encouraged her to pursue academics instead, leading her to put that dream on hold.

What brought her back to art was her children.

She began painting again in her spare time with her children, often bringing out her sketchbook while waiting for her daughter Ayana to finish classes at an art academy. Those quiet moments rekindled her passion for painting and convinced her it was time to change the course of her life.

She has since built her artistic career through a series of solo exhibitions and international art fairs.

Describing connection as the guiding principle of her art, Patron said Bulgaria and Korea share a deep appreciation for close family ties, making family-centered art a meaningful bridge between the two cultures.

“Children’s imagination is limitless, and it constantly inspires artists. The beauty of family art lies in its ability to connect generations through creativity,” she said.