Modern Art and Design Studio Treasure and artist Oleg Lipchenko present modern and traditional art and multimedia design.
 
 
    HOME  
    ART  
    WEB  
    ALICE  
    HERITAGE  
    LINKS  
    GUEST GALLERIES  
    CONTACT  
    BLOG  
 
painting 14
painting 13
 
painting 22
 
 
 
painting 1
 
painting 6
 
painting 5
 
 
       
   
Svetlana Pertchik
   
   
 
 

 
     It all started when I became a teenager. I was haunted by the tremendous fear of death, of violent physical disappearance. Light almost went off and distorted reality looked quite grim. Profound images of humans and beings appeared in folded fabrics and foils, in flaked paint on the walls, along the edges of cracked and chipped dark old mirrors .
     Their faces and bodies expressed silent suffering but some of them looked quite satisfied and even happy about other characters struggling in distress. Their looks and clothes gave an impression that they came from different times and places but not really from our century.
     Characters didn't communicate with each other or me. It seemed like each one of them was deeply immersed in their own state. Most of them didn't even notice me, except those vengeful faces that sometimes turned toward me , and their clever eyes and distorted smiles looked almost like an invitation. Seemed like they though that I was one of them. Despite the facts that my new friends looked pretty scary and that they never looked straight at me, but always in three-quarter faces, with the corners of their eyes and above their shoulders, I accepted the invitation. Haunted by the shadow of my own death I entered new extended realities.
     Real life turned gray, tasteless and meaningless. People and events became interesting only if they carried traces of my newfound worlds or any signs that my next trip there is getting closer. Tremendous excitement replaced fear of death and I felt immortal. I was stunned and drugged by the beauty and richness of my discovery. I had ecstatic daydreams and previous nightmares were replaced by endless journeys into new places.
     I cannot tell that they were happy worlds. Emotional turmoil, endless struggling and hopelessness could be used as a passwords to all those places, but their flexible matter intelligently responded to the slightest change and that somehow revealed the beauty and meaning of pain as a phenomenon.
     First I was a very respected guest and a main character of each trip. Sensitive matters responded to my presence by surrounding me with the necessary characters, settings and situations. Sometimes additional changes were applied to my physical features, such as two more hands or arms, double joints for better flexibility or additional pupil in each eye for sight extension. Some of the trips were so scary and dangerous that I withdrew from my dream without waiting for the situation being resolved and without any attempts to solve it myself within that reality.
     Later I learned to be more modest, observed quietly and motionlessly without sending disturbing waves of my presence to the flexible matter. There were two important rewards for my modesty . The first reward allowed me to visit more dangerous and far away worlds in which I traveled in form of my eyes and sometimes even that was too noticeable. Some worlds could only tolerate my sight but at least I could look around. Only twice I visited the place where I could look only straight and for a very short time. As soon as I moved my sight I was noticed and attacked.
     The second reward was a transparent screen in front of me that I can turn on any time to see my own paintings-in-progress as a motion pictures . That gave me enormous advantage because from then on I was able to move closer or further from the scene to observe detailed development or the whole state. I could also dive into the world behind the screen to experience life of any personage and relationship between them and parts of their reality.
     I started hearing noises and sounds as well as a silence of those places and when I heard similar sounds from almost finished painting I knew that I am approaching the closure. I did not need anymore to fall asleep in order to travel there and I had much more control over the movements than I had in my dreams.
     Following images are just modest diary of the modest traveler, interpreter and peacekeeper moving lonely along the edges between outer and inner battles .

 

 
 


     It all took place when I was drawing my last picture five years ago. The title was “The birth of the mountain”, three characters were supposed to seat under the rock as a group.
     I usually see complete painting in front of me before I even start, similar to the screen in the movie theatre, and I saw those characters together with the rest, maybe fifteen other characters around the picture. And then suddenly they disappeared . Each time I tried to see them I could only see a cloud, like somebody erased them for me.
     That was a very strong sign, if you know what I mean, artists must be sensitive to signs. I stopped painting all together. I felt that important parts of myself went missing and I had to start a journey to find them without any idea where to look. I spent hours in concentration , checking every corner of my memory, and begging every source I ever received i mages from, to return my characters. I thought that was the end of my evolvement as an artist and I felt devastated.
     I spent days in a deep sadness until one day I suddenly saw my three characters. They were unrecognizable in their disguises and that felt like a joke – somebody was laughing at my misfortune. They seemed like Disney cartoons characters and I never, never used this kind of images, never even saw them before on my screen!
     One of them was a stork , similar to the birds that appear on birthday cards caring newborn babies to their parents. Second was a big doll that been used by probably three or four generations of children, filled with cotton, dressed in the white apron covered with greasy spots. And the third one was a huge, human size, burned out candle that looked like an abstract sculpture made of melted wax.
     Of course I could not use such images and that meant to me that my fate as an artist was sealed. I had to surrender to the idea that I will never paint again. You can imagine how I felt after fifteen years of devoting and building my life around painting. I went into deep despair and at some point even told my doctor that I don't want to live like this and that was the truth . In my eyes life lost it's fascination. Even interest in my paintings by my friend and strangers could not cheer me up.
     Only about year ago, after I finally accepted my disadvantage , I start receiving unusual stories . They somehow floated into my head - no more images on the screen, no more screen itself - only words . That is how three lost images turned into three stories of my life or maybe lives .

 

 

 
Svetlana Pertchik   Gallery1 | Gallery 2 | Gallery 3
     StudioTreasure presents artist Oleg Lipchenko. We provide you with the Gallery of his artworks both paintings and graphic, latest news concern our exhibition activity, publications, projects etc. You can find there oil paintings, graphic art, sculptures, and limited edition prints.
     Guest Galleries: sculptor Aleksander Bukvic, painter Tatiana Shuliak, 3D artist George Grie, sculptor Grozdana Bukvic, painter Svetlana Pertchik, sculptor Peter Por, painter Michail Kurzakov, poet and writer Goran Simic
 
 
 
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Limited Edition
illustrated by Oleg Lipchenko
226 copies
ISBN: 978-0-9783613-0-3
Published by Studio Treasure,
Leather Binding
Gilt Edges
Signed by artist

 
HOME   |   ART   |   WEB  |   ALICE   |   HERITAGE   |   LINKS   |   GUEST GALLERIES  |   CONTACT  |  BLOG
Copyright StudioTreasure© 2005. All rights reserved. StudioTreasure.