studiolifeline

Pages...

2011-12-18T15:02:00.000-08:00

How many times after a walk through NY galleries I wondered looking at my sketchbooks: why can I not do this in a different format? It seems and feels that my random, quick, thought-less sketchbook pages hold in the just exactly as much or as little what is needed in the modern universe - not too much, not too little - just right; nothing left. But page is page and book is a book - number of pages stitched together... so the story is different. It is not told or screamed or announced - it is read - by each viewer one by one.

Selected pages from recent books:

Re-thinking series...

2011-11-22T07:21:00.000-08:00

RE-thinking Pollock in NY, 24x24", 1997

In the middle of the 90's I found an old shower curtain in our studio building. It was old and had an interesting pink/yellow flowers design on it in the style of the 50s. After washing it and thinking about putting it in my shower I thought about relationships between time and shower... like anything else in our life showers have designs, shapes, colors and structures that come with each one + they are connected with time in another way - each person takes his own time on taking a shower... we rearly talk about them... showers are personal. ..somehow through all that thinking I came up with a series of painting in which in different settings famous people have been taking showers. Painting "Jackson Pollock Masturbating in the shower" was mentioned in a Boston Globe in such a way that I decided to destroy it...and the painting "Re-thinking Pollock in NY" happened... I loved the idea of connecting landscape with design of the wall (time message, interior/exterior) and a piece of art that would be recognizable. Other re-thinking paintings followed.. I do not have images of all of them, but here are three I found in my slides. Last week somebody asked me to paint a version of "RE-thinking Malevich in Moscow". While talking about it I realized that this work has a structure and options can be changed to fit. ARTIST + PLACE+ WEATHER+TIME+ HISTORY...
I am thinking about working on this again putting more thought into the process...
Each artist has many geographical locations connected to him/her known to us by their biographies. Based on an artists personal background, religion, and place in Art History different kinds of messages can be included in each piece. ..

RE-thinking Malevich in Moscow, 46x48", 1996

RE-thinking Klein in Provincetown, 24x24", 1997

New colors on new series

2011-10-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

When this Summer ended I felt better and somewhat elated, as if just this one word SUMMER was hanging on my neck as some sort of weight of something long gone and not anymore needed. Air was coming through a window and although the window still is on the first floor with wire barns on the street it was fresh and crisp. I don't know why.

I unpacked my deadandstreight.com stretchers that have been waiting for me since at least July, stretched canvases and primed them all in one day with at least two coats each.

I quickly started 4 new paintings. Something was wrong with the most of them. It will take me a few weeks to understand. Though they looked new and different from each other something in them was repeating itself making it impossible. All of them have been very blue.

Realizing that some two weeks later I came back to my blues and started working on them again. Consciously avoiding blues all together. I discovered that the reason my work often look so bright is because I mostly use primary colors only. Blue is the only one (except white) that I allow myself to use as an extra color; all kinds of it.

New pallet of greens and browns came out and like in my struggle with darkness long while ago black line helped tremendously.


Untangle Sails oil on canvas 26x24"

Dark Night

He and Eyes

Soon


Friday Morning

verbal narrative in theatrical space

2011-09-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

I am finding interesting things... there was a time when I was writing so much in my head (may be it happened when my English reached the point I needed to be comfortable in the world) that each painting/drawing.anything I was actually looking at needed to be described and titled; only after that I will be able to "un-title" it, re-title it and visually create it.

1999

1999
Work has been often divided into sections which act more like sentences in the poem than pieces of cloth in quilt.

Curtains started as pieces of other paintings, became see-through screen and came back to real curtains

Painting inside the painting, Landscape behind the window, table in the room... all those setting have been structures for my work than and in many ways still are. I just think I found a more intelligent, less decorative way for my dividers and spaces became more abstract and hard to describe or not needed to be described at all.

"Burning Stretch", 40x30", 2001

"On another end of the world..."
40x20", 2011

Digging through my old sketchbooks

2011-09-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

I have been saving my sketch books for years. I saved my diaries, which I used to have since the age 12, but those all got confiscated when we immigrated, because it was still time that for unclear reason anything handwritten was forbidden to leave the country. I often miss my last Russian diary. It was rather a hand-written book with a main character being "My Imagination". It would say, f.e.: "...and than my imagination went to bed". It will be almost 20 years later I will discover Life?orTheater? by Charlotte Salomon.

Preparing a syllabus for "Breaking the Boundaries" intensive workshop I thought about how to give examples of an art process to students, because before you "break the boundaries" you have to create them or at least find them. For that you have to discover your own creative process. The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp was useful, but I wanted something hands-on. So I realized that I have all those books of mine. .. Hard cover with often more writing than paintings they are a process of my thinking. I picked up on eof my first American sketch book, dated 08/91-10/92. It says SKETCHBOOK 5A. I am not sure what 5A stands for.

Looking through the book I discovered an interesting clear transition from Russian suprematism to sexual expressionism. And I saw through the pages how naturally it happened... There is a poem (in Russian) that I am trying to write all the way through the book. It also illustrates this transition from clear geometrical structure to childish uncontrolled desire and physical expression.

So, here comes this clear, geometrical composition standing between black square itself, theater set and geometrical minimalism, touching all three.

Further in the book, you can find drawings that are transitional between geometrical decorative ala 1930's designs with curve lines and words often as a part of the drawing:

Words inside the drawing on the lower right are "Russia with Bad Luck".
Unfinished Russian poem on the left says: Inside the blue turned up side down square of of a human noise a crowd of old points of view has been walking inside the crowd through rivers, gardens and bridges...

With a poetry about transition, motion and descriptive organic shapes straight and edgy lines turn around, bind, connect softly... circles replace squares.

Looking around and looking back

2011-08-28T18:12:00.001-07:00

A Trip To The Village

Her blue shoes had not been shined for months, and when he came from the shower, wearing a long bathrobe with silver stars all over it, she had already packed all her belongings into a small yellow suitcase that she kept under their bed all this time.

She kissed him good night and reminded him to turn off the stove. She got up, adjusted her jacket and lit a cigarette. She ran down the stairs, holding the yellow suitcase in one hand and the cigarette in the other. She thought about the Moon, the Milky Way, and the silver stars, and the village of her childhood. At the front door, she realized that she forgot her umbrella, but there was no time to go back now, the train was leaving in fifteen minutes.

She was going to the village to shine her blue shoes! When the train took off, she decided to brush her teeth. She met her reflection in a small round mirror above the sink. A woman in her early thirties, a toothbrush in one hand, wearing a jacket and a pair of old Levi’s, a few pimples, soft pinky cheeks, silver tips beginning to show in her dark curly hair, stared at her. She flushed the bubble gum and brushed her teeth. She was tired and fell asleep in her compartment.

The train took off and began slowly picking up speed. She was getting closer to the village! She thought about the gas station over there, in the village. Almost every boy wanted to work at the gas station, or maybe at the fire station when he would grow up. She dreamed of gas and fire, and her childhood, and Mom’s old house. It always smelled like diesel for her in this little village.

Early in the morning, the rain started behind her ribbed compartment window. When she opened her gray eyes, the rumbling of the wheels gradually faded, but the strong smell of her childhood village was now all over her. She looked under the bed and saw the small yellow suitcase covered with thick layers of dust. The sound of lost birds was coming from under the bathroom door. It suddenly stopped and she looked around wondering. And then he came from the shower holding her shined blue shoes in his hands. Long bath robe with silver stars all over it and shiny blue shoes in his hands reminded her of the Moon and the Milky Way, and the smell of a burned stove reminded her of a little village, where she grew up, where it always smelled like diesel.

He kissed her good morning and reminded her to brush her teeth.

She got up, adjusted her nightgown and lit a cigarette. She realized that he forgot to turn off the stove, but there was no time to go back now, the train was leaving in fifteen minutes.

What is beauty for me?

2011-08-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, drinking strong Russian tea I stated that "my art is a mixture of autobiography, symbolism and philosophy". My intense relationship with these three words, autobiography, symbolism and philosophy became a spine of my image-making process. This definition is a "cats cradle"- one thought connects to another, becomes confusing and needs an immediate transformation, re-interpretation and later - disconnection. Once taken off the fingers the cradle can transform into one thick and straight line of thought. One of the isms my personal iconography, self-stylization and my approach to everyday life is a category of Romantics .... with a psychological twist.With the help of grace, inspiration and self-assurance I create new, personal iconography the indispensable element of which is the connection between life and art - my life and my art.

Romanticism creates and cultivates a new repertoire of images, characters and places they live in. However, there is a crucial paradox in Romantic image making: It is a self-conscious process and it is the image of personality, private character that sets up a mechanism that sets it in motion. In the 70's Philip Guston stated that his work is "image ridden".
I still want to believe in strength and truth of purity, beauty and freedom.

purity = autobiography
simbolism = symbolism
freedom = philosophy

Of course beauty is relevant. But just believing in it makes all the difference in the world.

Here are a few images that from my point are pure, symbolic and free = beautiful.

Still from movie Stalker by Andrei Tarkovski, Russia, 1970's


Full Moon on Friday night photographed from Brooklyn Bridge


Fra Abgelico The Saint, XIV century


Monk by the Sea, Caspar David Friedrich


Black Square, Kasimir Malevich, 1915

Russian RED in my art

2011-08-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

Red always played a very important role in my work. Red was not just present, but so defined that it was making statements, telling stories and answering questions. Because of the strong contrast it appeared in my than dark and later even darker work as an opinionated visitor :

"Do not look back", 60x30", 2008

Turn Right!, 40x30", oil on canvas, 2009

and later on as a main character, being a horse, a blanket, a bucket of blood, a flower. I wondered... why. After all, I was a Pioneer through middle school and had my very own red "tie". I am a part of the Russian-Soviet History.

Red is a prominent color in Russian culture and history.

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Bathing of a red Horse

The Russian word for red, krasni, was, in the past, also used to describe something beautiful. Today, krasni is used to indicate something that is red in color, while krasivi is the modern Russian word for “beautiful.” However, many important sites and cultural artifacts still reflect the combined usage of the word, and a name that incorporates this root may still be considered something elevated in status. In fact, the Russian word for excellent - prekrasni - shares the root kras with these other words. Gradually and subconsciously through centuries, red became the leading color of the Russian and later the Soviet people, carrying profound and enormous meaning. Its energy and intensity imply great strength and passion. It seems to destroy all optical calm, "burning".


Burning Stretch, 40x30", 1997

Red is a color of fire and blood, heat and life. Enigmatic for all its apparent openness, the color red creates a dramatic effect in any picture, adding an air of special gravity.

Since 2010 "red paintings" in which Red is not a visitor, not a character, not an object, but rather a whole space of "being" started happening in my studio.


Dedication, 68x72", 2010

Yesterday I finished another "red" piece:


"Hold Still", oil on canvas, 44x33", 2011

and red seems to be my emotional charge. Red Caviar still is my favorite and my first love date happened on a Red Square. Lets just think that this is "prekrasno".

Another color that dominates in my work and often competes with Red is Blue. Blue - a color of water, air, sky and most importantly - Blue Star.

"On Another Side of the River"

2011-08-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today I finished a new piece. 48x24", oil on canvas, "On another side of the river"...
"Illustration" on one of my favorite modern poems by Y.V. "Мы из жителей по ту сторону реки"...

my ...ism(s)

2011-08-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

Don't we all love the moment when at the dinner table when after finding out that you are an artist somebody you don't know well or not at all, asks: So, what do you paint? or worse: What style do you work in?

You can say: I am a landscape painter. Next question will be: what kind of landscapes do you paint?
or you can say: I am a modernist. Next question will be: what is that?

or there will be silence...

What can be a starter for an interesting conversation can be a death silence in others. An art conversation can turn into disagreement, fight, disappointment... art is worse than politics at the dinner table.

How do we come to our isms? How can we define them? If an artist will be honest and works a lot his styles change through life-time, sometimes months, sometimes, years, sometimes hours. Artists think, compare, read, listen and use there own bodies, eyes and minds to make a new or at least there own creation. ... some painters use there bodies to paint, some thoughts, some theories, but I would think that the most important way of the process is a combination of all the things above which in a mix of personal history, psychology, politics and may be even orange juice in the morning will cook into a final art product.

So, if I take my lifeline from the first day I painted my style will add up from those elements:

artictic childhood filled with art, museums and painting father
being a student in Soviet Art School
discovering of "unofficial art" in the Soviet Union; freedom - something to belong to
working with Grisha Bruskin, discovering symbolism and a power of language
moving to New York
discovering and belonging to Abstract Expressionism
moving to New England
discovering the ocean, drawing a horizon line across my abstract painting
reaching a point in English, when I was able to translate my own poetry into English
painting curtains and chairs over my landscape paintings

coming up with

abstracted
landscapes
symbolically
bilingual and
theatrically narrative
---------------------------

multiple-faceted personal symbolism Possible problem: ( too personal and volnurable, hard to translate)
abstract expressionistic paintings Possible problem: (old fashioned, sometimes too beautiful)
absurd and honest narrations Possible problem: ( too psychological )
-----------------------------
... a true Pandora's box of images and emotions that I happily share with viewers with delight for a moment of pleausure, intoxication, beauty and honesty. No problems!

...thinking

2011-07-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

I am thinking about calling my new proposal for a personal show "Utopia".

Utopia, a.k.a. an imagined and ideal world becomes one of the main subjects of my work and inhabitant of my landscapes. For me, utopia is linked to the now, the moment between one second and the next. It constitutes a possibility that is actualized and converted into reality. An opening where concepts like subject and object, inside and outside, proximity and distance are tossed into the air and redefined. Our sense of orientation is challenged and the coordinates of our spaces, collective and personal, have to be renegotiated. Changeability and mobility are at the core of utopia. In my large canvases I offer the viewer to enter into the beautiful of the imagined filled with dreams and hopes and be aware of how things evolve and happen.

But what am I going to do with bleeding heads, broken legs and dead animals? Is that anti-utopian in itself? Opposition? Nostalgia via Utopia?

work... is again in progress!

2011-07-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

in the studio...

2011-07-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

Finished painting

2011-07-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

Today, after long struggle with Red Riding Hood and a Wolf, I finished the painting for good. On the back it said: Little girls are not so easy to fool those days as it used to be... I crossed a few words. The title came to: It is not so easy as it used to be...

A book to stumble upon...

2011-07-17T14:40:00.001-07:00

Two winters ago my collaborative Book with a poet Grace Andreachi written in a straight response, “Two Hands Clapping” came out in London...

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/two-hands-clapping/5616261?showPreview

After the Flood

An Empty Closet

Bare Bones

about a Red Riding Hood and, of course, a Wolf...

2011-07-14T12:53:00.000-07:00


Talk at the French Culture Center

Two years ago I was looking for ideas on which to base a proposal of my personal show in French Culture Center... the main idea came from a book about Jungian Approach to French Fairy Tales that I happened to have on my desk (taking Jung theory Continuing Education in University of MN that semester). I first planned to come up with a series of paintings that will psychologically (in my images) show well known French Fairy Tales. The first one that came up was Red Riding Hood.

...and continued

Like a play...with characters ... this painting went through different stages and settings. It was a part of "french" show, but is on my easel today again. No Red Riding Hood or a wolf..
It started as a large orange painting with french blue, which looked like a purple, because of the contrast. The characters of the story came into the arranged for them space and lived there for a while, but the whole Freudian setting and although well and interesting painted colors looked inviting the whole thing needed to fall apart and so it did.

After two months of work it came to its new being erasing all the images, but probably looking for some new inhabitants (unless I manage to put them behind the red curtains.

... I will put one head without a neck on a pillows and sing a soft song...

sketchbook pages

2011-07-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

Add caption

Sketchbooks are my visual thoughts that lead me to new ideas... there are times in my life when I keep a sketchbook as a diary in pictures and than for some reason, time comes when I can't think in images.

New beginnings

2011-07-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

I am starting a new blog called studiolifeline (the old one was called mystudiolifeline), hoping that I will find a way this time... Good blogging should be like a creative documentation.