Saint George
In the life of every artist, there must be a painting - a legend. Every few years, I create a special piece of art, incorporating new technical ideas and a particularly powerful wish for the world. As a rule, this is a complex painting, work on which can take six months or a year, always exactly as long as necessary for the painting to be soaked with the energy of creative work and clearly communicate the given idea to everyone.
The image of a folk hero or heroine is constantly present in my work. Every nation that exists on Earth has its own legends and its own national hero, who has the properties of a national character and a special flavor that allows him to be perceived as the essence of the folk art of a given people.
In the cultural heritage of Christian peoples there is one special hero, whose personality is so closely related to the people’s love for him that now he is already inseparable from the general culture of every nationality that knows him. This is St. George. It so happened that in the age of about three years, I already knew that there was such a saint, because I found out that my grandfather Gora was actually named George, in honor of St. George. I realized that this was such a hero, because the time was deeply Soviet and my dad, a communist, spoke about the saints in his own way. It turned out very interesting, a real folk legend about a hero who defeated the Snake Ignorance and helped educate the people. This is the earliest memory of him, and then there were many more meetings, each time he appeared in a slightly different form, turning to me with different facets of the symbol of the victory of progress over ignorance. Each time, the most powerful creative experiences and revelations were associated with his name, so the St. George Cathedral in Yuryev Polsky and the image of the Egyptian god Horus in the British Museum and St. George of the Alans jumping into the sky from a rock in North Ossetia touched the deep strings of my spirit.
Saint George. 80x100 cm Tempera, acrylic and minerals on canvas. 2021
As often happens to me, when I am particularly inspired by something, I saw St. George in a vivid dream. Inspiration initially came not from the main character himself, but from the place associated with him. If I tell you from the very beginning, in order: when I first looked at North Ossetia in Google Maps, I was strongly attracted by the word Tsey, because in Ukrainian this word means This and since I go through life listening to the world, I could not help but notice this attention when planning to visit this place later. After some time, we managed to stop by Tsey for an hour, it was in May, the beauty of the Tsey Gorge was simply amazing and a dream appeared to stay here in the future for some time, and it came true. The second visit to Tsey was longer; it was a wonderful time in early autumn, when everything was golden. My dream was also in a golden mood, I was sitting in the room and looking from the depths of the room at the golden forest, through the wide window of a log house without glass, suddenly the door was opened by a light that blinded me to tears. From the light emerged the image of a dismounted horseman, leading a richly decorated horse shining with white, with golden horseshoes. The rider himself was a tall and very slender old man with a dazzling white beard and hair, a youthful smile and bright, lively eyes like a mountain stream. His clothes shone so much that it was painful to look at, the patterns on them changed and shimmered with living fire. Looking closely at the patterns, I saw, felt and recognized the living forces of nature folding into its protective fabric. And inside, where the clothes are slightly bent, it is also clear that the nature of his clothes is nourished by the light of the stars. Just a second, the one who entered brought with him not only light, but also warmth, it became hot and I saw right behind his back an incredible sun, at the same time red and golden, and it was one with him and it was His Kindness. His care, his love, his protection. The few secret words spoken to me are literally impossible to convey, because it was like a song and like a symphony. Only a dozen words, but such a sea of meaning that it took me a year to develop his message into a picture. When I saw the dream, I didn’t think about it, but I seemed to merge with this place. Only much later do I find out that I saw in a dream a secret figure associated with the Tsey gorge, the main sanctuary of St. George in Alanya.
Rekom Sanctuary in the Tsey Gorge
Composition is a particularly important point in creating a meaningful painting. The composition should emphasize the meaning, and not fight it. Personally, I have always been interested in creating paintings that attract the viewer’s attention from afar with a strong composition with some particularly bright spot, and captivate them up close with detailed elaboration. It is important for me that the healing energy of beauty penetrates the entire being of the viewer, so I use special laws of composition that promote long-term viewing and memorization of the aesthetic experience. In the painting St. George, the red sun in a golden halo plays the role of a magnet, inviting you into the world of the painting. This detail will be visible and attractive even from a great distance or when greatly reduced. The color balance of the picture is built in such a way that the sun, St.George himself and the horse remained the most noticeable details of the composition. Although the sky and earth as a whole or in detail also have bright colors, we do not perceive them as such; thanks to the small pattern, they are still only a background for the main character of the composition. It is working with colors opposite in the spectrum that allows you to create this distinction. From large details to the smallest pattern, I use colors opposite in spectrum to create three-dimensional effects and to enhance the energetic vibration of the painting.
Golden rays streaming from the clouds are the light of love and care of our beloved ancestors who became angels. Their lives, their love and labor built our peaceful life. With their care, this selfless and always sincere impulse of energy, indestructible in eternity, our land is preserved. Under the golden clouds, on which the souls of angels — our ancestors — live, a clear blue sky spreads out like a fairy-tale carpet! And patterns move and dance in the sky; if you look closely, these are alternating stripes; on some we see fairytale birds and trees, and on others there are figures of dancing people, trees, suns, flowers. Each symbol has a meaning, the blue sky and the blue color itself, symbolizes education and future generations, who dance in the sky on patterned ribbons. This is the wish of many, many happy generations of people, this is our love, projected into the future, so that the people living on this earth will always be happy for many centuries. Magical birds reminiscent of the Phoenix bird and other fairy-tale birds hold Ossetian pies, sometimes turning into stars, or support dancing people on their wings - these are symbols of divine blessing, in this picture they mean a wish for prosperity, eternal rebirth and fertility, the wealth of the earth. Trees, flowers and trees with fruits have the same symbolic meaning among many peoples of the world: growth, development, prosperity and well-being. The entire sky was painted listening to the music of the Ossetian national dance Honga and is filled with joyful wishes for peace, which symbolizes the white color on a blue background.
A painting like “St. George” is a special work of art, in which, in addition to the visual, visible part, there is also an inner part, or rather, even an inner world. Many will be surprised how this is the inner world of an inanimate object... The fact is that it is alive. We hear often that you need to “put your soul into every work”, think about it, there is nothing wiser than simple folks' words. Yes, if you put your soul into anything, it becomes alive. Each of my paintings is an outpouring of love for the world for many hours, and this work is special because the interaction with it lasted a whole year; in a year I can layer a lot of diverse light. It was especially interesting with Saint George, he appeared to me in a dream, in the form of an old man, all of His clothes shone so much that they filled everything around with light, but his face shone even more! Six months later, my husband read to me a phrase from the Nart epic about the Patron in shining clothes, when the cloak in the painting was almost ready. People often ask me how I have the patience for all these patterns and details, this question surprises me... Look carefully, it’s all love and love, with each layer, with each new color, this is the revival of an inanimate canvas, by investing a piece of your own soul and giving away part of your life, time and energy, not out of forcing, but out of deep love. Even despite how my arms and back hurt later and my vision deteriorates. Why? For great, sincere love that does not expect anything in return. I love the whole world and every detail of it, may it be blessed!
