Many of Vlado Palankov's illustrations are shaped by his experiences of his native Bulgaria. TONY LELIW went to meet the man behind the drawings

A newspaper on a toilet roll is one of the more striking drawings which grabs your attention at Vlado Palankov's exhibition at Stanmore Library, in Stanmore Hill.

Bulgarian-born Vlado doesn't believe everything he reads in the papers and his drawing aptly illustrates that point. "People should be more critical -- think more about things, instead of going with the mainstream.

"You are given information which is chewed for you and you just swallow it without thinking," he says.

His ideas may have been shaped by the Communist country he fled from, ironically after independence in 1991 and the "fake revolution", but he likes to read more than one newspaper to pick out the contradictions in the same story.

Despite having no formal artistic training, his work has been published in such esteemed publications as Punch, Private Eye, The Independent, and the New Stateman to name a few.

In Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, he was equally involved in working for publications which didn't always see eye to eye with the establishment.

He was illustrator on Demokratzia (Democracy), the first opposition daily in Bulgaria, and the satirical magazine Shut (Clown).

"We got into trouble with the authorities as the media was bugged by the Bulgarian police," said 35-year-old Vlado, who lives in Whitchurch Gardens, Edgware. "We were offered to be bought out by a larger publication so that they could control our work but we refused."

His inspiration to draw came from Nicky Peckarev, a famous Bulgarian illustrator. "I used to see his lovely illustrations in glossy magazines while in the army," he said. "I sent him some of my work and he encouraged me to carry on."

His pen and ink drawings carry some interesting messages. Take for example three towels with signs above them. One reads hands, the other face and the third conscience. Another shows spaghetti on a plate which doubles up as a wire and leads to a plug socket. The most intriguing one for me was a handshake between a man wearing a glove and a mechanized hand.

"A man climbing a mountain was a drawing I was playing around with for two years," he said. "You struggle in life trying to achieve something and sometimes you go the wrong way."

In autumn 1993 he came to Britain and hopes the Government will allow him to stay. He works as a graphic consultant in Kingsbury and looks forward to the future.

His drawings may be critical but he's open to criticism himself. "I'm putting them on exhibit to be seen and commented on".

An exhibition of Drawings by Vlado runs until Saturday, February 28, at Stanmore Library, Stanmore Hill, Stanmore.

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