Pillow Book – The wind is dying out. Steps of passersby are seldom heard in the silence of the night. The darkness thickens, and birds stop singing. The owl hour is knocking on my heart!

Tide Of Time – In the outlines of rocks coming together we could see the contours of an inexorable hourglass. The upper cone is a symbol of the heavenly ocean of the future, of innumerable possibilities opening for the people sitting on the shore. The lower vessel symbolizes the past where the mists of unrealized events, dreams and desires are floating around. We see the chronons – sands of time dropping onto the bottom of the hourglass and transforming themselves into the pebbles of frozen history. The artist depicts the time of tide when the people look into the future. Streams of light and a sail appearing on the horizon promise them happiness and the fullness of life.

Our lives appear timeless, yet anyone observing how we spend our days might think that we don’t appreciate the time that we have been given. As we say goodbye to 2010 and hello 2011, how can we make better use of our time, and what can we promise ourselves?

I would lke to promise my fans a Happy New Year! May the Tides of Time slow down long enough for you to recognize the beauty that surrounds you in this precious moment. 

Vladimir Kush

Safe and sound in the privacy of their little walnut shell on the very first morning- Adam & Eve are removed from any nagging questions about suffering and good and evil. So what is the mother of all the living thinking about as she kisses Adam’s lips?

A return to childhood- playing in the woods, hearing the music of nature- ultimate inspiration. Does this painting bring back memories of a favorite place where you would go as a child? Can you hear the music of Johann Strauss from the needle of the bird’s beak?

Pros and Cons – The figure on the painting resembles the goddess of Justice Femida. But it is more likely that the “eternal” question is to be answered here: what was at the beginning of the World (or Life). The two men are disputing about that. These are the characters, carried over from the “School of Athens” by Raphael. One of the philosophers is pointing to the sky, preferring the heavenly beginning and another – pointing down, considering the earthy beginning.

To Our Time Together – Looking at the painting one could recognize the duality of its images and meanings.We see three vessels filled with life-giving liquid. From the central vessel, a mountain cup, rushes down a stream of water. In ancient Rome the current water was considered as sacred. The Romans associated its flow with the course of time. Here, a man and a woman thank each other for the time spent together, measured by the falling water of life. But the cup is also a symbol of wine. So, the scene could be interpreted as a ritual of offering the wine. And in wine whiles the wedding of earth and sky, wrote the great German philosopher Heidegger. Thus, the man and the woman might express gratitude to forces protecting their union. Freshly cut flower introduce in the picture a dynamic element contrasting with static background of the colonnade of glasses.

Family Tree – The painting is a hymn to the family remaining the principal element of human society. It represents the family tree as a mighty tower trunk surrounded by tiers of towers-branches. Its appearance reminds us the saying “My home is my fortress.” The trunk of the tree symbolizes the unity of the family, while its branches represent the diversity of life. The Family tree is a grown-up sprout of the Tree of Life – a mythological image known in many cultures. It originates in the idea of the great tree as the central axis of a divine energy stream. Here, the spirals of reinforcement represent this spiral movement from the bottom to the top. The family tree tower continues to grow, conveying the idea of the continuity of life. Above the door of the tree home hangs a mandala – a holy geometric composition symbolizing spiritual and cosmic order opposing confusion and disorder of the material world.

Spring Resurrection (mask) – From the deep dark night of winter eventually the spring must emerge. The metamorphosis signaled by the return of the birds. The cycle of life begins again as dead leaves are replaced by sprouts. This is resurrection.