Friends, here is another of the chapters from my upcoming book, now in edits.
… He humbly stood
In a Maze of Masterpieces
Each one so different
And yet from the same miraculous Hand …
The first time I was in Siberian Russia, in the early 2000s, some five years before, there were signs of a superior quality of art on display. but nothing like THIS!
Vladimir Rasputin lived a relatively simple life, with a spacious studio, as many Russian artists, supported in good part by the State.
One interesting feature setting this man apart was his headband, from the cuff of a pair of jeans!
As a very discerning artist myself I had a difficult time just trying to select the number of his paintings to have for me own.
From past experience I knew Customs would take some concerted doing simply to have the works I did select make it all the way overseas to Canada.
Yet choose I did, from the great variation on one of his central themes, taking one back to the very beginnings of Siberian life, and even back to the time of the Vikings.
One thing I did notice later, that for the quality of the materials available, from the coarsest of simple gunnysack, to what he produced, a glass-like surface, was like taking a moment’s inspiration and effortlessly jumping a leap year into the rarest of artistic airs.
One work depicts what Vladimir describes as the Princess of the Dragonflies, a young lady standing amidst a wondrous and magical field of these insects, which we Native Americans, too, consider at the door between this world and the next.
Another, of a stately Asian woman,
Astride a road-weary steed,
Boldly forth, to a new land,
Eagle held aloft.
That kind of muse simply does not exist
For most,
So illusive when She does
Deign to torture
Some fortunate Soul