The First Trace — Elara holds a very special place in my story, because it was the first work I truly recognized as an official beginning. Even though it was not literally the very first painting I ever created, it was the first one that felt like a declaration. The first one that carried the sense of a true arrival. The first one that told me, quietly but clearly, that this path was real.

It was also the first time I left a golden footprint within the work, almost like a signature before the signature. A mark that was not only visual, but deeply personal. In that moment, I was no longer simply painting. I was leaving something of myself behind. A trace, a presence, the beginning of a language that would become mine.

I consider this piece a small masterpiece, not out of vanity, but out of love. Some works are important because of how they look, and others because of what they awaken in us. This one feels almost like a child to me, in its own symbolic way, because it carries the emotion, tenderness and intensity of a first true beginning. It reminds me of the exact moment when something still fragile became meaningful.

That is why The First Trace — Elara remains so precious to me. It is more than an artwork. It is the moment when instinct became identity. The moment when an experiment became a direction. The moment when I understood that every journey begins with a first trace, and that sometimes the smallest imprint can hold the deepest meaning.