Atelier Eftimov

Born in 1978, For as long as he could remember, he wanted to be an artist; this, coupled with constant moving as a child, really made an impact on him. His family of two younger siblings and parents immigrated from Eastern Europe (Macedonia) to the east coast of the U.S. in a small town in North Carolina. At age four, Grigor's earliest recollection of drawing began in nursery school. Having moved back to eastern Europe and eventually Australia at age 15, he fell in love with figure drawing. His family eventually moved back to the United States. It wasn't until years later that he would pick it up at the American Academy. He wanted to go to Florence and study, but that dream didn’t last very long. He looked for other opportunities to make a living and continue his studies. That was when he found a school that had a very similar setup, “The School of Representational Art.” It was a smaller, more intimate setup than the academy, and with personalized critiques and the sight of figure drawings and paintings, he knew this was the place for him. Immediately, he enrolled in the program. The program took about four years to complete, and about his third year there, he began student teaching, doing demos, and becoming more involved, eventually becoming part of the faculty. During the summer and winter breaks, Grigor spent summers working as a caricature artist; this lasted for about 4 summers. Caricature art had a huge impact on the way he saw the world and added another layer to his visual expression. Shortly after his art training, Grigor began storyboarding for commercials over the course of 15 years. household names, such as McDonalds, Nissan, Comcast, Nintendo, etc. In 2013, what seems to be a necessity—he turned what was to be nothing more than a personal workspace into a full atelier. Since then, Grigor has had the honor of teaching some very hard-working and aspiring students throughout Chicagoland.