Some Art Stuff Between the Cultural and Political Self Evaluation

Truth is this blog was created many years ago for the purpose of sharing my art. I've gone through a phase when I deleted everything on it and completely abandoned the project. I'm working my way back to posting my art faithfully and daily. I'd really like to gain a world audience for my paintings, for what is the purpose of making art if not to share it with others?

While I've been in Russia I started revisiting my old sketches for a story I am particularly fond of by Gogol. The title roughly translates into The Terrible Revenge. When I first read the story I felt a sense of destiny that I should read it, it hit close to my heart and my life experience. It was like a cautionary tale written directly and very specifically to me personally. I was so taken by it that for some reason I sat down and copied the entire thing by hand, and it's a pretty long story! I felt that I really had to make myself memorize it and make sure and remember its significance to me. I also dreamed of illustrating it and have taken some steps to planning the first scene and developing the main villain.

I brought the sketches with me to St. Petersburg simply because they were in my sketchbook. I thought I was going to use my sketchbook to plan my series of matryoshka paintings because that's the what I've been invested in recently in Tucson. But I found it difficult to work on that series in my transient state for it required a lot of precision and calmness of mind, things I don't have right now, as I am away from my husband, reconnecting with my childhood, learning about myself through communication with my grandmother and seeing my country and its culture through new eyes.

I let go of my usual sense of control over my medium and came up with this.

Russian Grandmothers

I usually try to avoid answering my phone when it's my mom or my grandmother. Most of our conversations consist of them telling me how I should be doing things differently and how my life isn't what it could have been had I listened to them. So I listen to them less and less as I grow older. For a while though my grandmother stopped calling me altogether because she got used to the idea that she had nothing to say to me that I would want to hear, so when she called I answered.

She said she's getting surgery and I must immediately fly to Russia. She thinks her surgery will be sometime in May, although she doesn't know exactly.  A preliminary consultation with a doctor is scheduled and at this consultation she will be given a specific date for the surgery. Surgery is imminent.

I bought a ticket and came to Russia. I thought my grandmother was getting a surgery. I went with her to the "preliminary consultation" and it was certainly not a visitation to schedule any surgery. Rather it seemed more like a routine check up with a doctor who decided to send her to do an MRI just to make sure she doesn't have cancer. Although I did not ask the doctor weather my suspicions are true because the time and place were not appropriate for such questions, I did think this may have been a yearly routine for my grandmother.

So while I'm here I'll take the time to share some of my impressions about St. Petersburg, the city I was born in.

First on the list is the May 1st celebration. I did not know this but May 1st is Labor Day and is very much observed in St. Petersburg. My grandmother tells me it's observed all over Russia since the Soviet Times. I went downtown to the central city street, Nevsky Prospect, to see what was happening. There was a parade and tons of people came to watch it.

When I first got off the metro I thought the parade was wherever these lovely ladies were and I followed them until the main square in front of the Hermitage where the parade culminated and there was nothing more to see. A small stage was set up there with an awful sound system that hurt the brain so I left. I walked through the arches and back towards Nevsky Prospect.

I thought all the festivities were over and people were just walking the streets now, but suddenly I saw a mass of red flags descending  upon us in a solid wall of human flesh and I knew there was more to be seen.

Fortunately I took a video. To be continued...

Competition

I have neglected my blog. A month ago I quit my teaching profession and decided that I will not go back to the public school system. Instead I will delve head long into the art business. While I have no clear idea of one path to success (there's not a fool proof manual on how to succeed as an artist), I do have some ideas of ways to become more visible to the general public and hopefully in the process catch the eye of the right publishing company, art director or gallery.

I think my ultimate goal is to illustrate children's books. I am not positive that this is my optimal niche. I feel as though there are other fields of artistry that I am not familiar with that may be better suited for me, or that I need to become better suited for myself. At any rate I am working on finessing my own artistic style and vision in my pursuit of business success in a creative industry.

The next day after resigning from my teaching profession I entered into a call for entries in the Society of Illustrators annual. Among several other pieces, I submitted the one above. Unfortunately I did receive notice a few weeks back that my entries did not make it into the annual, but I tried. This is my second time in life applying to this annual. Both times the jury did not pick me. I don't know why they did not pick me, but I'm okay with it. I'll keep trying.

The piece above is called Gamayun. It is a mythical creature in Russian folklore thought of as a bird of paradise. Originally the bird had no wings or legs and was said to fly with the propelling force of its tail. Its presence foretold the corruption and abolition of government institutions. As the bird continued to evolve in its form, artists gradually gave it wings and legs and the face of a woman. Popular artists such as Vasnetsov and Block gave it a new two sided meaning, one of happiness and one of sadness as they often portrayed the birds in bright colors and happy facial expressions for good omen and in dark colors with sad facial expressions to foretell tragedy. This piece is simply my take on the bird of paradise and its good fortune.