My own way of "stopping" time is painting. In this case, I felt blessed to paint a garden inspired by Romania's archaic motifs and symbols. The endless columns, the patterns sawn on our national port, the floral embellishments present on pots, doors, walls, fences, and almost everywhere else are our national DNA. They symbolize persistence and beauty stretched into eternity. I visualized a place deeply rooted in tradition, mysteriously beautiful—a place reminding us, in a melancholic way, about our first home. A place that is carved deeply within our hearts, wherever life takes us. A place where time seems to have stopped and only the essence of things is carried on.

The “Maiastra” bird is an allegorical symbol of complete freedom through its ability to detach itself from the earthly, heavier ties and soar to the limitless sky! "Maiastra" is the queen of the birds and holds unearthly powers through its song that rejuvenates the listener. It belongs to the other realm and displays its unique beauty only to the truly privileged.

The rooster, "Cocosul," is also a prominent figure in Romanian folk ornamentation. Reminiscent of the solar cult practiced by the Geto-Dacians in ancient times, it symbolizes light, life, truth, rebirth. The rooster, with its unique gift of being the only bird that sings both day and night, is the guardian announcing the victory of the sun and light over the darkness of night. I painted the rooster proudly wearing the sun like a crown.

I was truly happy painting the different objects in the garden, and the process felt like a quiet, warm connection to so many other artists who did the same, for thousands of years in Romania. Another distinctive and symbiotic part of the project were the handmade, painted clay spoons. Why spoons? Because they seem to hold whatever the viewer is willing to put into them. Working with clay has always fascinated me because it's a very pure way of actually giving a new life to something shapeless, almost waiting to be born. I painted the spoons inspired by earthy colors and designs, as an homage to some of Romania's most popular, millennial artistic motifs: the spiral as a symbol of fertility and energy, the tree of life connecting earth and heaven, the snake line as a lost path, the spiral as a never-ending timeline.