BLUE ROSE MUR AL The blue rose was painted on the Hi-Way Florist building located in St.Louis. In its uniqueness and blue color it embraces love, the striving for the infinite, the eternal and the beauty of all things.
BUT TERFLY MUR AL Reflects part of Carondelet’s history and symbolically represents positive light for the transformation of Carondelet. The butterfly was painted to embrace transformation, metamorphosis, endurance, change, hope, and life.
She Explores the Worlds of Murals, Paintings, Philosophy, and All That Jazz
G E TAWAYS
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y recent meeting with Vesna Delevska at her Chesterfield gallery was accompanied by the sounds of cool jazz. She loves American jazz, listens to it constantly, and paints to it. Jazz has become a powerful creative force in her art and her life. Born and raised in Macedonia, Vesna wanted to go to the United States. Her parents were supportive and urged her to go to Oklahoma as an exchange student, where her brother was in college. She enrolled at the University of Oklahoma, graduated, moved to Kansas City, then to St. Louis, where she has lived for the past twelve years. “In Macedonia I was preoccupied with a strict and traditional education,” she said. “My work was subject to a lot of harsh criticism.” She was
driven to do something more with her life, and found education much freer here. “I realized I could dream something creative here, not traditional.” Her father, who lives in Macedonia, is an artist and a guiding force in her life. He
helped give her the confidence to pursue her dream, a dream that has become a reality for her in St. Louis. “I love St. Louis,” she says enthusiastically. “It is something different for me, older and more interesting. It has a soul.” Most of her art has been paintings on canvas in traditional sizes. Her style and subjects, however, are not traditional. She often explores the fantasy, the metaphysical, the hidden beauty of nature. The walls of her gallery are filled with her paintings in a dazzling display of colors and subjects, but all of them probing the deeper meanings of life and the universe. Vesna also expanded her talents to include murals, which began in Kansas City. She found she could express herself better in this larger format. “It started as my personal extension to get to a deeper level. For me, it seemed like a whole different reality.” Murals required her to think and plan differently, beginning with a sketch, which she would then project onto the wall and proceed to paint, making changes as it evolved.
