Why does April end so quickly? Who can answer this question? Maybe time has been sped up and it has become faster? Maybe there are a lot of things to do and they make the day go by faster? Maybe you are just lazy? All together – it is spring. What will you do to enjoy the fresh gust of wind that brings spring and beauty? What will you do to change the usual atmosphere for new activities and meetings? What will you do to stop everything and do your most beloved and dear – creativity? Spring. Every day of April was different. The sun will jump out and happy people, undressing, will start meeting in the awakened city. Then the wind will blow and everyone will hide in their houses again. And the trees are still bare – they do not feel the warmth and sun – there is too little of it yet. They have not received the signal and the order – blossom, there will be no cold until October. Even the birds – although it is time for them to build their nests and sit down to hatch their chicks, they are not ready yet. The birds have already divided into their pairs, in some places they are still dividing up territories (we were at the lake last weekend and saw two males dancing in front of each other on the water, screaming loudly).
Their dance is a struggle and competition.
In April, everything is reborn. Everything that was old and unnecessary recedes into oblivion, like rotten grass after winter. Much is realized in a new way, in a different way, and changes with awakening.
What I would like to tell you now is one piece of wisdom that I have noticed in flowers. Bulbous flowers are the first to wake up. These are beautiful, bright, fragrant flowers, whose rebirth is laid down far in the depths of winter and cold. And here is what a strong productive energy is laid down in them when they go towards the light, towards the sun and warmth. They overcome a lot of obstacles to expose their tiny heads for one week to the spring sun. And only one week they play with their beauty. Only one week they give their love. Wonderful! After them, as a signal, the buds on the trees begin to move – I noticed from the cut grapes that this is how the vessels supply juice and nutrition from the roots to the branches at the beginning of spring to revive the buds on the trees. And now, during the day, you can see how the buds come to life, gain strength, put on their color, and grow in volume. Wonderful! Coming home, you want to change it, decorate and update it. I took on this difficult task and decided that I would update the house by making artificial flowers from delicate violets and grapevine saved from last year’s fall. What came out of it? A small decor that can be easily hung anywhere in the room. Mood? Wonderful!
What to say when it is better to just keep quiet? And it is true.
This year(2025 Snack) is very scary in its events and in its course. Starting the year with fantastic plans and the development of my art gallery, which Art Etobicoke gratefully offered me, with plans to fulfill the dream of working with children and adults, teaching them artistic creativity, improving my mentoring skills – instead of this, I will simply say that I fell out of life. I had to chaotically take up the creation of paintings, because I was afraid to stop. There was a time when creating paintings was so difficult for me, but very necessary. Therefore, there was another period when I posted and wrote and created something, until I stopped. And at this zero, it is already very difficult to get up, start your creative motor, pick up the speed that was at the beginning of the year. My loved ones, my environment, “moves” me. Thanks to them, I am grateful. I have already visited the Easter bazar. It even seemed to me that it was not only me – the audience of the bazar was so small.
I slept through (in the full sense of the word) the February and March gallery meetings. Yesterday, for the first time after silence, I filled out a questionnaire for the upcoming exhibition. That’s why I say – it is difficult to start something when the energy is at zero. There are a lot of internal excuses that twist from within and belatedly ask not to go, not to agree, not to rush, not to create, no..no..no. However, I will tell you and show you all three paintings that I will present at the exhibition this month. It turned out that, in keeping with the theme, they were all created in 2019. Not at the end, when the quarantine dome hung over us all, but at the beginning. This was special year. I have created a lot of paintings and they all differ from the previous and subsequent ones in style and color. Series 2019.
This series is made in a warm yellow-brown ochre color with my unique style of abstract expressionism that I created in those two years. It is the strokes that add charm to the paintings, they have more emphasis and meaning. Everything in order.
Small, delicate two paintings, “Ballerina 1” and “Ballerina 2” were created at the same time. It was a period that absorbed in me to express the feminine inner creative “I”.
It was embodied in the movement of the Ballerina, in her dance, in her hand positioning and image.
This is not some specific ballerina, this is an image that symbolizes femininity and love for dance. There was a romantic mood and I really wanted to embody it in the painting. Therefore, I combined the dance and the image of the ballerina to emphasize the feminine principle, Venus and the symbol of beauty, grace and fragility. The paintings were painted on a base where I chose yellow ocher.
Working with this color was the basis of 2019. You will ask:,,Why exactly this colour?” It is not a bright color. It is a shadow, tint, primary color.
This is exactly what made me work with it.
I I was time not drawn to brightness. I left the dark color that I loved in previous years – in previous years I was carried away by black. In general, I have a lot of dark colors – early paintings were similar to graphics and made in oil on canvas in a black and white collection after returning from France in early 1995-1996. These paintings can now only be seen in buyers’ collections. I survived that period and was reborn and no longer want to return to the black and white palette. So I am also finished with this yellow-brown ochra period. I will repeat once again – there was a period of absolute warmth and love, grounding and comprehension at the beginning of 2019, when nothing promised tragic consequences and the closure of the quarantine curtain over all of us. I dabbled in a casual style and painted … myself … my experiences. They were expressed in the next painting, “Nude”.
The style and manner of execution of this painting is that I use strokes to mask the clarity and the stroked outline of a naked woman. But you all see perfectly well that this is a woman. As if naked, we see the silhouette, but at the same time, we do not clearly see her body. And the mysticism that has accompanied me throughout my life as an artist. It was 2019. Look at the left shoulder of the female silhouette – there is a tattoo there. Imagine that two years later, on a pre-war trip to Kyiv, in that place of body, on my left shoulder, I got a tattoo, along the outlines – like in this painting. I did not even think about it on purpose. I will even say it differently.
After creating this painting, “Nude”, I covered it with varnish and hid it until better times, because in my circle there was no opportunity to exhibit it in a gallery salon and there was no demand for it.
That is, as always, it was born ahead of time. And here is the year 2025. Yesterday I received an application to submit my works for the upcoming exhibition. I began to leaf through all my works (I have electronic versions of my works, collected by year) The theme of the upcoming exhibition is Gender. And I settled on these three paintings, in which “Nude” is the central one.
How to describe the period from February 13 to 18, 2025. Toronto. Canada? In a word – it continues. There is little joy in the city from the snow, everything is buried in solid snowdrifts. Even cars did not rise to shovel them on Sunday. If the weather spoils us and more snow falls this week, then even a very active snow digger will give up from the impossibility of clearing the paths. On the night from Sunday to Monday, some crazy guys decided to drive along an uncleaned street. It all ended with one in a pickup truck flying up a mountain of snow across the road, breaking all the cables and scattering parts of the car. Removing it was also problematic, since it is difficult for cars to leave and arrive at the location. And at that moment I noticed that the cars were driving carefully along the open lane. And not one, not one stopped to help remove the moron from the hill! We must understand the harsh, specific character of our inhabitants.
Then a gusty wind blew and a small plane at the airport landed on the roof, flipping over and breaking its wings. How can they allow landings in such weather? And perhaps this is not the best time for flights. But today the sun is shining blindingly, cold, provocative. We fed the sparrows that spend the winter in our trees. The birds pounced on the food, not even waiting for us to move away. They already trust us. Weather-tested))
I am disabled in one eye, I am trying to pull myself out of idleness and painted. All the critics around me, discussing my work, say that I am great at landscapes. Winter ones, for example. So I am trying. I want to sweeten my condition with something. I am giving you a new work – Winter landscape You will see from it how much I miss painting with oil paints. Still, oil cannot be replaced by acrylic. And in the summer, when there is an opportunity to paint with oil paints in the open air, I will return to my favorite technique. In the meantime, for you – winter landscape
A snow storm is covering Toronto. This is the fifth wave in a week or the third in a day. Another 10 cm of snow is expected. During my stay in the city, I have seen such a strong snow storm for the first time. Today is Sunday and the city is frozen. Everyone is in their homes. It is impossible to go outside, since in most cases, the roads have not yet been cleared, walking is problematic. Many exits from houses are covered and there are no cars in the city. Everything has stopped. Only beautiful snow-white snow falls and falls. As if the cloud above the city is full of holes and sheds its precious feathers. Everything turns soft white. Snowdrifts are already taller than a person. And if two weeks ago, higher, north of Toronto there were snowdrifts of this height, now they are in Toronto too. And what about further north? Strength to city residents to have enough strength to clear these snow drifts. Without snow removal machines it is impossible to do without. The snow is becoming sticky and heavy and it is becoming increasingly difficult to remove it manually. Just yesterday, cars from the city came and helped, cleared it and threw salt. The next thing after this will be a frost of -20 this week and after that – the melting of this snow. That is why we dig out houses – so that houses do not get flooded when the snow melts. That is why these convenient plazas are made in cities – so that in case of cataclysms you can drive in and have a post office, shops and cafes in one place. Now I understand the convenience of building cities in America.
Snow Storm
7” x 5 ”
Acrylic on canvas
Feb 2025
The snow keeps falling and falling. The beauty that you watch from the window. Rare cars try to drive along the uncleaned roads. Everyone is hiding and waiting – just a few more hours and you can go out, dig up, clean the paths around the house and the entrance to the houses. Just a few more hours. And then you have to dig up so that the water doesn’t get into the house, and then you have to sprinkle the paths with sand so that it’s not slippery. Our Canadian winter is in full swing
Do you know how many times I started this post and deleted it? Okay, I’ll tell you as always diplomatically – I created this Petrykivka Snake. Not in December, but in mid-February.
It was physically impossible to do this earlier. Today I show it to you and say that I don’t want another start to the year like this.
The year of the snake began with surprises, evil, cold and calculating. It is insidious and unpredictable.
I congratulate everyone who is affected by this date on the holiday and wish you your faith. Let it be the current stimulus of your life. It was you, despite all the ups and downs of life over the past 2 thousand years, who returned hope and gave life. Despite wars, adversity, illnesses and epidemics. Despite the fear of being worn out, the fear of being destroyed, the fear of being misunderstood. You made those unexpected exits from situations and after you came life. New life. Today I will write little. I will simply put one of my paintings, which was created a long time ago, but I was archiving my works and raised it. I admired it for a long time. I love this unique, author’s work of mine. And I love my works when I paint with oil paints. Enjoy
My mistake is in the latest publications on Saachi and I will quickly try to correct them. I made a mistake in the description of the paintings and the materials that were used for the paintings.
Everything is simple.
I pressed drawing and it gave me out of five types, everything that did not fit the description and I chose a pencil.
I did not find either oil or acrylic.
I was wrong. I had to choose painting and then there is oil paint, acrylic or gouache.
Oh, I am a gaper)) I urgently change it, it takes a lot of time, so that you understand a little.
Today I am posting another painting, very dear and important to me – this is a Portrait made in the cubism direction. I have dedicated a lot of my works to this direction and many of them are already owned by collectors around the world.
This direction is close to me and I really like it. I made this picture with acrylic paints, although before that, until 2018, I worked with oil paints in most of my works. Since 2018, I started working with acrylic.
Which gives me more time to work, since in our northern Canadian latitudes, winter lasts six months and the oil does not dry and gives a smell and it takes a long time to paint. Of course, there is a way out of the situation. But I switched and other types of my works appeared in my collection. Take this picture, admire, enjoy and remember that the world is beautiful. How beautiful is everything that belongs to its creator, that is created for life and that is eternal, like our soul
Why are the site being attacked? Yesterday, the site was pulled out of a crash. It has crashed twice in the last month. Oh, come on, bots. Do people in China and Israel really not read what I write about? It’s a shame that sometimes they realize this too late.
And I continue to rake the shelves of my paintings and talk about them. There is nothing more beautiful than the artist’s own story about his work. I created this work back in 2017. A lot of works were created that year, about 20 came out in a year. That’s a lot. The artist’s efficiency. You might think about it. After all, I’m not rewriting someone else’s work, but creating my own. And I’m not creating for today, not to order from someone, but I’m creating so that this work is new, fresh for a long time and conveys the era, time and date in which the painting was created.
2017. This portrait of a young man was created to try the style of painting portraits, which is characterized as romanticism, pop art. I created it from the image of a young man. The dark spot at the center level is a specially thought-out strategy to shade the look and emphasize the expressiveness of the image.
Well, the brightness of the colors plays along with it. The portrait is small, 8” x 8” x1” with side processing. Finished. The material I used is oil paints. The beautiful work is covered with varnish so as not to lose the beauty of the image. Exhibited for sale on Saatchi
the painting is up for sale and can be ordered and bought Everything that has been sold on the sites over the last month will be reviewed and possibly removed and updated in connection with the changes.X Well, as an author and artist, I want to wish you health and prosperity. I congratulate everyone on the new lunar year.
It is difficult to tell you in advance how the coming week will turn out. Today a warning was announced about very strong winds in our area, which will be accompanied by heavy snowfall. They ask to prepare for possible power outages. This is not usual for our area, but attempts have been made in past years. This means that it is impossible to predict what will happen tomorrow. About 8 years ago in the area I told you about, Midland, a huge hurricane passed, which destroyed almost the entire city and after which that area was recorded as an area of strong winds. But I am talking about something else, it is combined with surprises and unpredictability, but still more manageable. Today about my book. About my first book, published last year. I keep a diary and described how the book appeared and why. In September, my children’s book about the history of the fleet appeared in my hands. I celebrated its appearance with all my friends and I am glad that they liked it. This became my transition from one type of activity to another. I am happy and proud of it. And I have not stopped. Now I am preparing more, several children’s books at once. I hope that they will be published as planned, by autumn. I will allow myself to be a little smart and tell you my observations – while we are young, we search for ourselves, try and reject partly everything that was created and collected by the previous ones. And then, when we become wise and old, we combine knowledge and supplement it. This is how I see all those who create something new, who improve and transform their existence. In the last decade of my life, I cannot live without books, without the knowledge contained in books. Although before that, I was interested in film scripts and video images. A book can amazingly convey the time in which a person lived. And just a few posts ago, I described how Persia was created Masnavi by Rumi.
This is not only a book – a sacred scripture of the laws of life, but also funny wise stories, giving an example of an easy but instructive attitude to one’s existence, to the meaning of life and to the relationship between people.
This is the most important thing I want to convey to you.
When I came home after this unique performance and excitedly began to share my impressions with my husband, he listened attentively, did not interrupt and with his characteristic Eastern wisdom at the end of my story answered:,,This is possible only in Toronto” Well, of course, I fully share his words, but I also have my own additions – such a unique work has survived and today we saw it thanks to The Toronto Consort, people who preserve the oldest works and pass them on to us, revive historical masterpieces, help to see the life of past generations through musical prism.
Thank you Daniel Taylor.
Thank you Emma Kirkby
Thank you for its exellence in the performance of medieval,renaissance and early baroque music.
12th century. Today we will talk about it. What is wonderful and surprising is that literally my previous post talked about the same period, but in Persia, in the East. And today I am publishing about another place – about Europe in the 12th century. Yesterday, somehow I came across my thought that in the 12th century the church was strong over society and dictated its own rules. People were looking for a way out of their life’s troubles and where then they covered themselves with it, somewhere in the opposite direction of the church they acted. In Europe, a cleavage was already coming. (Yesterday I said that the cleavage occurred in the 15th century, and we were just talking and my interlocutor decided to watch it later, whether it was so. It turned out that I was right, in the middle of the 15th century a dissent occurred, which changed the traditional framework of rules, the secession of Catholicism, Orthodoxy.) But let’s still talk about GRIGORIOUS_THE HOLY SINNER himself.
I should retell the plot a little, because no matter how much the woman is the cause of all the misfortunes in this work, Gregorius still remains the main character and the misfortune of the whole story.
A young girl sins with her brother before her wedding. This causes her to become pregnant. She hides the pregnancy and gives birth in complete secrecy in a monastery, after which she goes down the aisle. The child is dressed in silk clothes and sent down the river with God in a small boat with a note. A fisherman finds him, brings him to a church official, who leaves the child, asks the fisherman to raise him and helps raise the child as a servant of God. The mother gets married, but three days after the coronation, her husband and her brother die. She mourns them and buries them. After 17 years (I am interested in this chronology, it is different from ours, I guess) the boy grows up and becomes the main priest in this area. He needs to get married and his wife becomes his… mother (he and she feel some kind of love and closeness)
Being intimate, the mother sees the signs of her son and asks about them, she understands that in front of her is her son and tells him about it. He is confused, depressed and killed. He runs away from her, comes to the fisherman, and decides to go to the hermits, where he spends 17 years in the wild nature (again this date).Gregorius throws the key into the sea and says that when the key is found, he will return (very popular for those times). According to the rules of the time, Paul takes the place of the missing priest and asks three servants to find out and understand what happened to Gregorius.
The messengers come to the fisherman, and the old man treats them to his catch – a big fish. When he cleaned it for them – he found a key in the fish’s belly. It was a sign, and they went to the mountains to look for the hermit. They found him alive, but changed, wild and angry, aggressive. They asked him to come back and showed him the key. They went to the city, carrying the news of the living Gregorius. Three days later the monk returned to the city, which greeted him with greetings, singing and dancing. He returned to the rank of Pope.
His mother came to him, having learned that he was alive. They returned to love, began to live together and even had two heirs.
About the beautiful tales in the form of songs, created in the 12th century.
Sequentia-a series of musical narratives performed by three vocal artists @BenjaminBagby ,@jasminaCrncic and @LucasPapenfusscline
The wonderful trio of vocalists performed the story in German and the originality of the performance is a tribute to the work of Benjamin Bagby, who created this kind of innovative musical storytelling and has been transmitting it for almost 50 years since 1977, nurturing a generation of young performers and touring the world. He created more than 30 recordings spanning the entire Middle Ages(including the complete works of Hildegard von Bingen),film and television productions of medieval music drama.Today I am telling you about a work created in the 12th century.
And this kind of work is called medieval theatre and is a genre of mystery, farces and masks, as well as English cyclical dramas.
Medieval theaters originate from the Roman Empire (again Rome, the Roman Empire. How much the Roman Empire gave us – it left its notes, its traces and affected our lives for a long time, although it itself fell apart and today it is no longer there). From the time of the Roman Empire until the 15th century (when a lot changed in Europe, including what I wrote above) The themes of medieval theaters were always religious themes. Modern interpretation or traditions of medieval performances are plays of mummers, which are staged in the USA and Britain. The parade of mummers takes place every New Year in Philadelphia and is considered a folk parade. But as we can see, it is a continuation of the traditions of medieval performances.
Medieval plays also include mysteries, which are often performed in Britain. Our play is an example of a morality play as a types of drama from Middle Ages.
But how can I tell you now or describe everything that happened on stage yesterday – after all, you have to see it and it is so beautiful and refined that everything that I described to you above is very subtly told to us, the spectators in the hall, with the help of the vocalists playing the harps.
A very beautiful combination of musical harmony, playing instruments and narrative performance.
An hour and a half in one breath. And it seems that we know what will happen now, and again a curl and another story that captivates and makes you listen and follow the story.
I consider myself lucky to have listened and been a spectator of this evening.
Before the performance there was a lecture where we were told about Gregorian chant .This knowledge goes deep into the Roman Catholic origins of the church.Greagorian chant is named after St.Gregory I(590-604) it was collected and codified.
Harmonic monophonic texture makes medival music unique.
Have I filled you with intrigue? Whenever possible, when you see posters about medieval performances, go without hesitation and enjoy this performance. I wish you good luck
