15. Halloween thoughts...

A few days ago I asked Victor if he had anything for Halloween.  Of course, he did, and he sent me two drawings. I guess, I expected some traditional pointed-hat-black-cloak-flying-on-a-broom witches. When I received one of them, I was surprised first. After the second, I realized that our perception of witches is quite different!

"Witch"

"Ведьма"

"Witch's Blinding"

 "Ведьмино Ослепление"

Of course, Halloween is not a traditional holiday in Ukraine or Russia, even if it is gaining its popularity lately. But Halloween or not, all these creepy creatures, and especially witches, have their own rich history in pre-Russian orthodox folklore. For Americans, witches and other Halloween characters are so commercialized and stereotyped, that most of us would have the same image as I did. On the other side, witches that we “grew up with,” are more like spirits of nature. Also, they can be understood as a person’s inner self. The Russian word for "witch" is "ved'ma" that came from "vedat'"  that means "to know."

Actually, I believe, if we could escape the influence of the commerce that is trying to sell the traditional Halloween costumes and toys, we could relate to this other perceptions of the “witchism” as well.

Among old Victor's drawings I also found this non-typical image of Devil that also doesn't really fit our Halloween "standards." But this is why it's worth looking at!

"Pact"

"Договор"

14. Ceramics

Last year I hosted student teachers in my classes, and for this, Columbia University offered me a free course. I chose Ceramics. I can appreciate art, but can't really create anything. Ceramics, I guess, is as close as I can get to art. I am not saying it is not one, but the material itself offers you so many possibilities that your artistic skills matter less than in drawing or painting or sculpture, or so I'd thought. Besides, as a mathematician, I have sense of space, at least. This is my first composition. The assignment was "Environment," and we had to use extruded shapes. It will still be fired and glased:

"Evolution"

"Эволюция"

Anyway, when I told Victor about this course, he was kind of jealous: being a medieval apprentice in a pottery shop was his dream, not mine! (Here is that drawing again):

 

"Apprentice"

"Подмастерье"

It turned out that ceramics was much more that just using clay. Most people in my group are Arts majors, and trying to catch up with them in terms of creativity and artistism is not easy. I am not even talking about the quality of their pieces, but even about ideas they come up with. I had to ask Victor about some ideas and especially about design for a tile quadriptic that was one of our assignments. Well, "we, artists," are not very generous when it comes to sharing ideas. So instead he just made this drawing - I guess, pretending he is making it from clay. I hope I'll be able to make somehing to implement this idea.

"Pottery Love"

"Глиняная Любовь"

Nevertheless, after some more begging Victor said that he actually has something that will work for my four tiles, even for 49:

"My Animals"

"Мои Звери"

I selected four of them, adjusted the size, and the next time in class transferred the images to my tiles. I will  glaze them next week - so, to be continued... When my professor saw what I was doing, his eyebrows went up: clearly he didn't expect this from me. I explained that the drawings are not mine, and mentioned that it would be cool to make all 49 tiles. He said "Why not? Take a Ceramics class again next semester." May be I will.

13. "Let's denounce the old world!" - "Отречемся от старого мира!"

 It's really time to show some other aspect of Victor's work, I can call it "social." Here is a very old series of drawings;  I remember that I saw it even before my emigration in 1993, so it was created during the Perestroika. He named it by the first line from the Marseillaise. Another name for this series is "Seven Elephants." According to Feng Shui, a set of seven elephants brings fertility, or protects from danger, or attracts prosperity, depending on the position of their trunks.

 

12. Love through Humor

Finally, a different way to look at/think/talk about love, even though all concepts involved - passion, betrayal, desire - are not a loughing matter...




Lightning

Мол-ни-я

Secret Rendezvous

Секретные Свидания

Lust

Вожделение