Ava Blanche, self-exploration through art

Interview taken and written by Jean-Paul Van der Elst, freelance journalist

Ava Blanche is only 24 but has already achieved a lot as an artist. At sixteen, she moved with her parents from Mioveni (a town of about 30,000 people north of Pitești), Romania to Antwerp, Belgium. After a year in an OKAN program to learn Dutch, she pursued humanities at Merksem. There, she met some great teachers with whom she still keeps in touch. At home, she took on the role of translator and solver of administrative problems for her father and mother. After high school, she wanted to study art, but ended up studying psychology at the university in Leuven.

Soon, she realized that her future lay not in psychology but in art. As a little girl, she spent a lot of time with her grandmother, who let her color and draw and taught her songs and poems. "She was my source of inspiration and introduced me to books like 'Draga Mea,' which stimulated my imagination and creativity." The bond between Ava and her grandmother remains very strong today. They video call regularly, and this summer, Ava will visit Romania to spend time with her grandmother.

Art

She obtained her high school diploma in human sciences and then studied psychology for a year. She stopped to pursue the bachelor of graphic and digital media in Antwerp, making her own career dreams come true. She has just completed her third year and received a diploma with a specialization in publication design, focusing on print and creation.

But Ava didn’t wait for her diploma. With her former partner, she started her own business, which unfortunately didn’t succeed as expected. Now she has her own project, QUVVNIV Design. These letters are not Roman numerals but represent the core values of who Ava is. The Q stands for Quality, the I for Impassioned, and the last V for Versatile.

This versatility is evident in all her activities: she experiments with shapes, colors, and materials. She writes (*), paints, is a photographer, designer, and mixed media artist. But she is above all a seeker. She strives every day to become a “homo universalis”: a young Romanian-Belgian woman, an expat who speaks Dutch perfectly and has much to offer artistically. This artistic admiration further developed into a desire to discover her true self by pursuing art.

Searching for what materials have to offer, she experiments with various types of paper and print techniques. In search of innovative design, she aims for the perfect image. She has created eight books with graphics and photography and also makes individual prints. Information about her artistic activities can be found on her website, along with details on how to purchase her work.

Website: https://www.quvvniv.design/

Contact: quvvniv@gmail.com, +32 468 05 49 11

(*) Her latest book series "Etape ale interacțiunii umane" (2023) can be viewed at https://www.quvvniv.design/publications and ordered via the contact details.

By Jean-Paul Van der Elst, freelance journalist, administrator of the fb page Roemenië Vakantieland, and contributor to Buna