Please note: There is a custom in Russia I understand to use family names repeatedly. That leaves us knowing several people with the same name. So I use various means to distinguish between various people names Aleksey by spelling it differently (Alexei) or abbreviations (Alex) etc.
In less than a week I will be in Britain to visit old friends. I will be en route to Russia for the final foray in research and studies for the Warriors. These will be studies for paintings about three feet square of family members. I am reminded each day of the nature of this work as I watch the News Hour and they silently honor yet another lost “warrior” in Iraq. Of course they cannot honor each of the more numerous Iraqis who are after all the enemy, he says facetiously. And anyway, they are lost in what we perceive as the madness of their cause or causes, because there does not seem to be a coherent goal. That societies have a hard time associating the enemy as human is, I suppose, at the heart of my project. And this chapter is to emphasize the rest of the story, the families of those who have been or might be bereaved, fearful of that possibility, and simply those who are historically marked by war. And I am aware that all over the world there are other wars being fought that are eclipsed by those that have the most direct impact on us. I expect this is natural but it is also part of the tragedy.
These paintings are to be a reflection of the way war spreads its impact way beyond the moment and the individual warriors lost. As we know, the seeds of most wars being fought now were planted long ago.
Meanwhile I am working to the almost conclusion of a life sized bust of Vladimir (Vova) and the first of a couple of etchings I will do of a lad named Aleksey. As I work I am so vividly reminded of each of these young people. I will see at least one again on this trip. It is he I took deep into what he called “the village” to see his family which seems to describe the Russia beyond the few big cities. I am including fragments of entries I made during that trip and others below.
Producing a life-sized sculpture is amazing as a sense of person, not just body comes alive as the clay is worked. It is really rather strange and it is easy to understand again, the ideas that some have of art being a form of magic. There are times when I become so lost in it and almost bewitched that I do feel as if I am under a spell, but I am brought up by reality when I suddenly see some freakish distortion and wonder how I could not have seen it before.
In less than a week I will be in Britain to visit old friends. I will be en route to Russia for the final foray in research and studies for the Warriors. These will be studies for paintings about three feet square of family members. I am reminded each day of the nature of this work as I watch the News Hour and they silently honor yet another lost “warrior” in Iraq. Of course they cannot honor each of the more numerous Iraqis who are after all the enemy, he says facetiously. And anyway, they are lost in what we perceive as the madness of their cause or causes, because there does not seem to be a coherent goal. That societies have a hard time associating the enemy as human is, I suppose, at the heart of my project. And this chapter is to emphasize the rest of the story, the families of those who have been or might be bereaved, fearful of that possibility, and simply those who are historically marked by war. And I am aware that all over the world there are other wars being fought that are eclipsed by those that have the most direct impact on us. I expect this is natural but it is also part of the tragedy.
These paintings are to be a reflection of the way war spreads its impact way beyond the moment and the individual warriors lost. As we know, the seeds of most wars being fought now were planted long ago.
Meanwhile I am working to the almost conclusion of a life sized bust of Vladimir (Vova) and the first of a couple of etchings I will do of a lad named Aleksey. As I work I am so vividly reminded of each of these young people. I will see at least one again on this trip. It is he I took deep into what he called “the village” to see his family which seems to describe the Russia beyond the few big cities. I am including fragments of entries I made during that trip and others below.
Producing a life-sized sculpture is amazing as a sense of person, not just body comes alive as the clay is worked. It is really rather strange and it is easy to understand again, the ideas that some have of art being a form of magic. There are times when I become so lost in it and almost bewitched that I do feel as if I am under a spell, but I am brought up by reality when I suddenly see some freakish distortion and wonder how I could not have seen it before.
posted by Trevor Southey at 2:22 PM
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