descent Painting

painting from the cycle "desert"..."The desert" is a draft name for the project that I have thought about for quite a while. What's important for me is the relationship between nature and the identity and how nature influences the culture. Behind the word "desert" there is a range of meanings and symbols which play a role in how we relate to the subject. The variety of meanings give us a space for creative exploration. Relating to a metaphor, a desert is a place of wandering and emptiness, but also withdrawal from the outside world into the world of thought and spirit. It is a place of abandonment, temptation, transformation, transgression. The scenery of hallucinations, illusions, false reflections and wrong beliefs, wandering and death. It could be also a state of mind. A desert is a primary place that was once a sea. At the same time, it is the reverse of the sea. The word "desert" may bring to mind a flow of sand which is akin to the passage of time. The silence and stillness to be associated with persistence, or quite contrary - with a bustling desert life which is also a home to a variety of plants and animals. In the desert, the contradictions come to the fore. Some deserts are very hot, other deserts have cold winters or the extreme heat during the day and the frosty climate at night. The desert could be the hottest and the coldest place at the same time. It is "nothing" or "everything", "the end" or the "beginning", “Somewhere” and “nowhere”. "The desert" in itself has shared not a singular experience, as we all experience life and death, the fear and excitement, the closeness and the abandonment.