In 1999, Ivana Filipović/Ivana Filipovich/Ивана Филиповић, an architect, archaeologist, designer, cartoonist, and occasional procrastinator, became a literal escape artist, selling her beloved black lacquer piano for a one-way ticket to Vancouver.
After a 20-year hiatus, during which she worked in educational media and communications at a Canadian university, she returned to cartooning. In the last few years, her comics were published in Sweden, Slovenia, and Serbia and were exhibited at the French Institute (L’Institut français) galleries in Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia, and at the NOVA comic arts festival in Serbia.
Deeply interested in psychology, her work aims predominantly to portray complex female characters and other underrepresented persons and groups. Mainly focused on slice-of-life stories, she occasionally ventures into other genres. Stylistically close to French and Italian cartooning, she uses both traditional and digital tools. Most recently, the Canada Council for the Arts has supported her exploration of 3D storyboarding.