Secret Treasure Painting

The human psyche is so constructed that at the moment of greatest danger, on the brink of survival, when faced with the threat of imminent death, an inexorable desire to live rises in one in a wave and this is largely related to sexual energy. I painted this work two months after the outbreak of war in Ukraine. At that moment most of us seriously felt that mankind was on the brink of a world nuclear war. The feeling of anxiety, a kind of powerlessness in the face of an impending catastrophe was so strong that I stood at my easel with my hands shaking and cried. And suddenly, in the midst of a stream of disturbing news from the front, someone wrote that the frogs had started their mating season. And this lively, simple news resonated with me, made me smile as it was something sweet, bright and reassuring. So, I painted two pieces at once: one with mating frogs and this one with a symbolic depiction of the ancient male phallus as the cause of all causes. The composition of the work is extremely simple: in a small opening in a thicket of wild grapes, you can see part of the male antique sculpture, more precisely the lower part of the torso. A small blue butterfly flutters around the stone phallus as a symbol of life and transience. Personally, I prefer to send oil paintings stretched on a frame, but over a long distance this can significantly increase the cost of shipping. Therefore, I suggest, at the request of the client, if the work allows (not all works can be removed from the stretcher and twisted), remove the canvas from the stretcher and send it rolled in a tube. This will save you a considerable amount of money. I can put parts of the stretcher in the same tube so that you can use them by giving them to the nearest salon for framing pictures. Please let me know if you are satisfied with my offer.