As a four year old, Dita Starova, an artist from Skopje, Macedonia, was growing up in Paris and, as she now recalls, was already learning the language of colours. Today, she teaches art in Skopje and "The Language of Colours" is the name of her latest exhibition of paintings.

Starova, a member of the academic staff of the School of Architecture and Design at the University American College, where she is currently finishing her doctoral thesis, has exhibited at the French Cultural Centre and at the Museum for Contemporary Art in Skopje.

"These independent exhibitions are the result of certain phases in my art. Each of them is distinguished by one dominant idea. They project my attitude toward colours and their overflows. I would particularly emphasise my vision of the Pandora's Box. This work is comprised of seven boxes which represent my artistic representation of this myth that has accompanied humanity from the beginning of time", says Starova.

Dita studied painting at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University from 2002 to 2006 and became a Master of Fine Arts at the same educational institution in 2009. She points out that her childhood in Paris was crucial in her formative artistic years. The talent she was born with took her to a studio where she mainly worked on copies from masters like Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet.

"This is where I learned probably the most important lesson - the patience to persevere in penetrating faithfully the world of a one great auteur, in terms of the technique of colour and in terms of inserting personal touches in the work. This was probably crucial in the decision to continue my education at the secondary art school in Skopje and after that at the Faculty of Fine Arts, where I finished my postgraduate studies", says Starova.

Dita points out that an artist can never fully reveal the reason for taking the creative road in life. She says that influences are always relative to surroundings and incentives, but that every true artist is original and builds his or her own world, and aims for a unique vision for reaching certain imaginative heights.

"We live in a time when there's a major change in the perception of art as a universal phenomenon in life. The artist is forced to fight a series of existential battles in order to maintain his or her artistic work in the best possible conditions. We live with the myth of the great painters from the past centuries", says Starova.

She continues that it's a hard task for the contemporary artist to define her or his own creations.

"Any contact with an audience is relative. For ordinary consumers of art, their perceptions of figurative painting and the other arts is built upon the easily recognisable classical works. Through them, they see the geniuses of painting. But the artist cannot base his or her work on the past – he or she must cultivate an original and authentic world that will be rooted in his or her deep cultural knowledge. Mere technique is not enough; the artist must find a way to represent the soul in his or her creations. And the soul is not an object that is easily reachable or visible, neither for the painter, nor the audience", says Starova.

Starova says that her teaching and artistic work exist separately and that she loves both and doesn't prefer either of them. "My job at the UACS is to nurture the free drawing of the students as an integral part of their training as architects,” she confirms. “In this case, the experience of the artist and the technician is in symbiosis".

**The European Commission does not accept or recognise in whatever form or content a denomination other than “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. All references, direct or indirect, to this country used in this article are those of its author.