Dance with Pillows is the first work in the ongoing ThrowPillowScape artistic project, exploring comfort as emotional architecture. Originally created in acrylic, the piece combines expressive color with a surreal element, where pillows become more than objects — they act as silent partners in the dancer’s balance.

The composition reflects the idea that behind every moment of control and grace lies a need for support, pause, and softness. The painting explores the delicate balance between performance and inner comfort, reminding us that stability is often found not in rigidity, but in what gently holds us.

Suspended Balance, part of the ThrowPillowScape is an ongoing artistic project exploring comfort as emotional architecture.

Suspended between collapse and cohesion, the composition mirrors the condition of contemporary society, where equilibrium remains provisional and sensitive to the slightest shift. 

The painting holds a moment of uncertainty, inviting reflection on how balance within human relationships is sustained — not through permanence, but through constant, quiet recalibration.

Award-winning artwork. A journey into the subconscious, Wings of Hope represents the transformation of thoughts into beauty, hope, and renewal. The subject, immersed in deep serenity, releases a cascade of vibrant flowers and butterflies—symbols of growth, courage, and the unfolding of light through darkness.

The floating pillows represent a transition— between sleep and wakefulness, past and present, or one phase of life to another. The butterflies, often symbols of transformation and fleeting moments, enhance this theme of movement and change. The contrast between the deep, mysterious background and the soft, glowing elements suggests a journey through the unknown, where comfort and uncertainty coexist. The ethereal blue hues, cascading textures, and delicate flowers evoke a sense of time flowing gently, guiding the viewer through a dreamlike passage of emotions and memories.

Acrylic painting that symbolizes renewal, resilience, and gentle transformation. Cherry blossoms spill from a dreamlike pillow, while butterflies — both fully formed and faintly etched — rise into a twilight-toned sky. This piece is part of Anna BOGH’s ongoing exploration of emotional symbolism, where pillows serve as metaphors for rest, memory, and inner strength.

Painted with soft glazes and layered textures, it invites quiet reflection and inner clarity. It is a gentle meditation on fragility, hope, and the beauty that blooms through stillness.

The work presents a prototype of planet — a fragile world assembled from soft forms. Resting on a large floating pillow, a structure emerges that is neither quite a city nor a single home, but a settlement built from pillows of varying configurations, shaped by memory rather than function. Rain sets the emotional tone, slowing time and enveloping the scene in quiet suspension.

Windows appearing across the surfaces evoke nostalgia, lived history, and intimacy. They look both inward and outward, transforming architecture into an emotional refuge. In this work, the pillow becomes a metaphor for ground, home, and body at once — a soft foundation sustaining a delicate yet enduring inner world.

Award-winning artwork “Peeking” -  a conceptual digital triptych exploring the interplay between memory, perception, and intimacy through a surprising subject: pillows.

Each piece in the series transforms the softness of a pillow into a symbolic portal — a window into a layered visual and emotional dimension. From surreal skies (Peeking. Dream), to nostalgic architecture (Peeking. Home), to recursive abstraction (Peeking. Love), the viewer is invited to look again — to peek beyond the surface of familiarity.

The idea was born during a time of inward reflection. I began noticing how everyday objects — especially pillows — carried emotional weight: rest, vulnerability, dreams, grief. I wanted to use that universal form to reframe how we engage with memory and classical imagery, while keeping the tone light and open to interpretation.

The pixelated and painterly blend of the digital technique was intentional: soft forms meeting precise edges, echoing the tension between comfort and complexity. These works are meant to spark curiosity, to pull the viewer inward while giving space to breathe.

Whether displayed together or individually, the triptych holds space for conversation, nostalgia, and imagination — a visual meditation on what it means to look again.

Size of each canvas with frame is 17x17 inches.

This work reflects the idea that rest is not emptiness, but a state of alignment. The imprint holds balance, the pond holds motion, and together they form a visual trace of calm that remains after rest has occurred.

Point of Rest is part of Anna BOGH’s ongoing exploration of pillows as emotional architecture — objects that quietly store human presence, balance, and inner rhythm.

Sculptural medium on glass, clay, acrylic
In this work, I continue my ThrowPillowScape philosophy —
where pillows and stillness become metaphors for inner balance and emotional weightlessness.
Here, the figure rests in midair, half awake, between the real and the imagined —
a moment of quiet presence, held by light itself.

The idea of combining shadow box – glass – sculpture brings the work closer to an object installation.

Soft Data is part of my ongoing ThrowPillowScape artistic project exploring comfort as emotional architecture. I am interested in the threshold between physical softness and digital structure, and in the way familiar objects reveal hidden processes of memory, fragility, and transformation. Working in 3ds Max, I approach the pillow as a digital sculpture: a quiet mechanism where emotion becomes code and matter becomes information. The fragmentation is not destruction but transition—a visual metaphor for how our inner worlds increasingly flow between the analog and the virtual.

Festival attendees can walk through the exhibit, vote for their favorite umbrellas, and celebrate the diversity of visual expression and artistic storytelling.

Flower Connection: World Wheel is a project exploring cultural unity through ornamental language and botanical symbolism. Each continent is represented as a distinct visual territory, filled with floral motifs inspired by traditional patterns, folk ornaments, and decorative systems rooted in local cultures.

The project began with several months of research. Thousands of ethnic groups and hundreds of ornamental traditions were studied, analyzed, and translated into a graphic form. The challenge was not to replicate specific patterns literally, but to distill their most characteristic visual rhythms and integrate them organically into the silhouette of each continent.

The most conceptually ambiguous continent was Antarctica. Devoid of indigenous ornamental traditions, it posed a fundamental question: Can a place without human cultural ornament still participate in a global visual dialogue?
Rather than forcing an invented narrative, Antarctica became the conceptual center of the composition.

At the heart of the umbrella lies a compass rose — a universal symbol of orientation, travel, and connection. It functions as the axis of the “world wheel,” uniting all continents into a single rotating system. From this center, visual energy radiates outward, linking each landmass through floral forms as a metaphor for shared roots, growth, and interconnectedness.

The umbrella itself is a deliberate choice of medium — a functional object transformed into a global map, a shelter, and a moving world. Opened, it becomes a planet. Closed, it becomes a journey.

A world woven together by floral ornaments becomes an image of peace — a dream of a world without war.

The illustration depicts a stylized world where continents are connected through floral and botanical patterns inspired by diverse cultural traditions. Each region retains its own visual identity while flowing into a unified circular composition. Antarctica forms the symbolic center, holding a compass rose that connects all continents. The work envisions a world united by ornament — a quiet dream of peace and a world without war.

This year, my daughter and I took part in the Columbia Lakefest Umbrella Theme Exhibition — a community art project celebrating music, creativity, and connection.

The concept was inspired by The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine — a story in which music saves the world. A golf umbrella was transformed into a glowing artwork, featuring a circular musical staff formed by power lines, with notes from “All You Need Is Love” caught in mid-air like birds.

The piece was designed to absorb sunlight and glow at night, suggesting that the music continues to play even after the light is gone.

Created as a collaborative family project, the work became a journey through color, rhythm, and love.
The project was awarded 1st place in the Family Category. 🥇

Cat model. 

first models

Totem-like state. CatWalk Angel exists as an emotional form.

Creating process

The composition relies on vertical repetition and controlled color restraint, allowing form to gradually shift from organic to symbolic. Subtle modulation of light and shadow plays a key role in revealing the hidden imagery, requiring close viewing to fully perceive the transformation from landscape into metaphor.

Shadows of the birch trees turn into iron bars, and a human hand reaches through the narrow gap — grasping the light as a final symbol of hope and escape.

“Lost but Not Forgotten” is a large-scale acrylic painting (24 × 48 inches) created in response to the Art Advocacy event Make a Marc (2023).
The work is dedicated to Marc Fogel — an English teacher from the Pittsburgh area who spent over ten years teaching Russian students in Moscow. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison for transporting medical marijuana, despite its documented medical use.

The images document artist Anna Bogh’s participation in the Make a Marc Art Advocacy exhibition (Pittsburgh, 2023).

The Make a Marc art advocacy event was a group art exhibition in Pittsburgh on April 1, 2023 organized by artists and advocates to bring awareness to the unjust incarceration of Pittsburgh-area teacher Marc Fogel, who had been detained abroad on a cannabis-related charge. The exhibition brought together dozens of local and national artists creating works in support of his release and drawing public attention to his case as a form of art advocacy — using visual art to raise awareness, inspire dialogue, and spotlight his story and the broader issues of wrongful detention. The event was held at the Energy Innovation Center and featured contributions from about 90 artists with the aim of engaging the community and promoting public understanding of his situation.

Does your piece include any personal or symbolic elements? If so, can you share their significance?

Yes.
In Time to GO, fractured ice becomes a metaphor for resistance finally giving way—progress made through pressure and persistence. The broken surface suggests a system cracking open, while the solitary figure embodies the emotional distance between confinement and freedom, standing at the threshold of change. The words “Time to GO” are both a call to action and a reminder of urgency—directed toward one clear destination: HOME.

Now, after 3.5 years of relentless advocacy — petitions, voices raised, doors knocked on, and art speaking where words fell short — Marc Fogel is finally FREE.

The project was both a visual advocacy effort and community-led tribute, emphasizing the power of collective art to generate attention and solidarity.

The completed portrait was unveiled at the Butler Art Center with supporters, family members, and fellow artists present to celebrate Marc Fogel’s eventual return home after years of advocacy.

In Time to GO, fractured ice becomes a metaphor for resistance finally giving way—progress made through pressure and persistence. The broken surface suggests a system cracking open, while the solitary figure embodies the emotional distance between confinement and freedom, standing at the threshold of change. The words “Time to GO” are both a call to action and a reminder of urgency—directed toward one clear destination: HOME.

Painting process

Through the use of herbarium plants and layered paint, the work reflects the contrast between what is constructed and what is inherently whole.

In this work, the chair becomes a measure of human limitation, while the field stands as a demonstration of natural perfection.

Real botanical elements embedded into the surface preserve not only form, but sensation. Color, texture, and scent merge into a quiet emotional field, where spring is not an event, but a remembered feeling.

Painted lavender and real dried branches merge into a dense bush where color, scent, and memory coexist.

Quick Ink Portrait. Created under time pressure, this small-format portrait captures a fleeting moment of pleasure and immediacy. Working quickly removes hesitation and control, revealing an intuitive response to the subject. The portrait becomes less about likeness and more about presence: a record of energy, mood, and the physical act of drawing in the moment.

A quick ink portrait capturing a moment of quiet confidence. Fluid lines and soft color washes suggest presence and inner balance rather than likeness, allowing mood and gesture to take the lead.

A portrait of presence and inner tension. Nothing happens — and everything does.

The portrait captures a moment of hesitation between thought and action, where vulnerability and self-awareness briefly surface.

It is a brief state of freedom — where thought fades and movement becomes instinct.

Sparse lines and open space emphasize restraint, inner focus, and the delicate tension between impulse and control.

Sharp, compressed ink lines push against white space, creating tension and control. The portrait is defined by focus and contained energy rather than expression.

Fast, layered linework combines with loose tonal washes, allowing accidental marks to remain visible.

Ink and diluted wash on paper. The portrait holds a state of maximum internal pressure — focus compressed to its edge. The gaze remains steady, but everything else feels strained, as if one more moment would force release.

Ink and diluted wash on paper. A solitary pause — attention turned inward.

Public mural installation
San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum

Flower Connection was created in response to the theme “The Joy of Being Together Outside” during the early months of the global pandemic. The mural explores connection, care, and shared presence through simplified forms and symbolic floral imagery. Displayed as a large-scale outdoor installation, the work invited viewers into a visual space of warmth and unity at a time of physical distance and uncertainty.

This project later became a conceptual foundation for the artist’s Cats Collection, where narrative, surface, and storytelling continue to unfold within contained forms.

Acrylic on canvas

Originally created in 2019 for a public painting event within the Russian-speaking community in celebration of Mother’s Day, Flower Connection depicts a mother cat and her kitten nestled closely together. The kitten’s closed eyes suggest comfort and trust, while the flowers woven into the mother’s body act as a symbolic bond — an invisible umbilical connection linking mother and child through a shared central bloom, representing blood, care, and continuity.

Acrylic on canvas

Created after the artist’s move from California to Pennsylvania, Tequila Cat reflects a period of transition and longing. The work draws on memories of southern warmth and Mexican visual culture, using bold color blocks and playful symbolism to evoke comfort, humor, and resilience during a time of personal displacement.

This work reflects on love . Within the simplified, rounded form of the cat, three hidden heart shapes are embedded, suggesting that love can be layered, quiet, and often unseen. The composition invites slow looking, where tenderness and self-acceptance are revealed through subtle details rather than overt gestures.

A calm cat in a knitted sweater sits with a ball of yarn, creating a feeling of warmth, comfort, and quiet contentment. The image reflects simple pleasures, patience, and the soothing rhythm of everyday life.

For this work, a plotter was used to cut vinyl decals based on digitally drawn outlines of the cat. The decal was applied to the prepared canvas surface, and the surrounding texture was created with acrylic paint. The process became an engaging exploration of combining digital precision with tactile, painterly surfaces.

In Music Cat, the cat’s body transforms into a musical staff composed of tiny mice and birds, turning sound into a playful visual rhythm. Some of the mice are subtly hidden within the cat’s feet, inviting slow and attentive looking. The phrase “Music is my soul food” appears as the cat’s personal sign, reinforcing the idea of music as nourishment rather than decoration. The work presents the cat as a musical gourmet — attentive, curious, and deeply attuned to harmony.

Content winner

Part of a creative project on cultural adaptation and the transmission of cultural heritage through public drawing practices.

A warm, moody still life painting of a vintage metal samovar set against a deep red and brown background.

This painting depicts a Firebird — a symbol deeply rooted in Russian folklore, representing renewal, memory, and the enduring power of cultural imagination. Surrounded by familiar natural forms, the figure emerges not as a literal illustration, but as a living presence shaped by color, movement, and emotion.

This painting reflects a quiet winter memory — children sliding downhill, a solitary figure pausing with a sled, and a village softened by snow and light. The scene captures a shared cultural experience of winter childhood, where play, waiting, and observation merge into a single moment.

Rather than depicting a specific place, the work preserves a feeling of belonging and continuity, carrying personal and collective memory across time and distance.

This painting depicts a quiet, reflective landscape connected to a place where Alexander Pushkin, the renowned Russian poet, once lived. The white bridge set among autumn trees becomes a symbol of passage — between nature and culture, memory and history.

Rather than illustrating a specific moment, the work preserves the atmosphere of a meaningful place, where literary heritage and landscape quietly merge.

The parted curtains act as a gentle threshold between inner and outer worlds, memory and presence. Familiar objects evoke warmth, care, and everyday rituals, while the view beyond suggests openness and continuity.

The work reflects a sense of home not as a fixed place, but as a feeling — one shaped by nature, light, and small, meaningful details.

A hummingbird hovers between blooming flowers, captured in a moment of balance and motion. Vibrant colors and soft brushstrokes evoke vitality, warmth, and the sunlit, carefree mood of Southern California, where nature feels alive and endlessly in motion.

Willow branches, a symbol of spring and Palm Sunday, hold a bird’s nest representing warmth and home. Three blue eggs reference Easter and the quiet promise of renewal.

A delicate still life featuring a cup of tea with lemon and a bouquet of lilac blossoms. Soft colors and gentle light evoke a sense of calm, everyday ritual, and quiet pleasure, capturing a fleeting moment of comfort and seasonal freshness.

A candle flickers quietly against a snowy evening, its warm glow echoing distant lights in a winter house. The contrast between cold landscape and gentle flame evokes solitude, comfort, and the fragile warmth of home held against the darkness.

A winter forest of birch trees unfolds in cool blue and white tones, where vertical trunks create rhythm and quiet depth. The simplified forms and textured brushstrokes evoke stillness, clarity, and the meditative silence of snow-covered nature.