Redtree Times

Maria Prymachenko- A Dove Has Spread Her Wings and Asks for Peace

“I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian.”

–Pablo Picasso, after attending a Prymachenko exhibit in Paris

In the opening days of the current unjustified and unprovoked Russian invasion on Ukraine, in a city about 50 miles northwest of Kviv, the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum was burned by Russian forces. Destroyed in the blaze were about 25 paintings by the celebrated late Ukrainian folk artist, Mara Prymachenko.

Maria Prymachenko, considered a national treasure for the Ukraine people, died in 1997 at the age of 88. She lived through some of the most dire times of the last century, surviving childhood polio, World War II and the inter-Soviet attacks on the Ukrainian people from Joseph Stalin.

Though she was disabled and unable to stand as a result of childhood polio, her talent for design and her personal interpretations for traditional symbols in her paintings and embroidery was recognized in her 20’s. She worked as part of the Central Experimental Workshop of the Kyiv Museum of Ukrainian Art which brought together folk artists from the whole of Ukraine in order to create folk art that would showcase the folk art traditions of Ukraine for large international exnhibitions. Her work was displayed in exhibits in Kviv, Moscow and Leningrad as well as the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris.

It was about this time that she had surgery that enabled her to stand and married a fellow Ukrainian who was Red Army officer. The two had a child in 1941, who later went on to also become an artist.

Then life interceded. She struggled through WW II, losing her brother and husband to it. After the war, she was worked to exhaustion on a collective and lived in poverty. She had little time nor strength to create her art. But slowly, her creative flame was reignited.

Over the next several decades she created work and a legacy that saw her rise to the level of national treasure for the people of Ukraine. She received the highest awards and honors of the nation, had street in Kviv and a minor planet named after her, and UNESCO, in 2009, declared it the Year of Prymachenko.

While her work has a decorative element, strong and colorful in the naive tradition, it has its own personal feel. It is both optimistic and weary, coming from a person who imbues their work with all they have seen and experienced, both good and bad.

Her later work often was paired with phrases and proverbs that were written on the reverse of the paintings. I liked that.

But now 25 of her pieces have been destroyed in the effort to erase the people of Ukraine, both culturally and physically.

There are more than 650 of her remaining paintings in a museum in the besieged city of Kviv. If her life and work is symbolic of that nation, those paintings and the nation will most certainly endure.

Here are but a few of her works. The painting at the top of the page and the first one below seem to fit the moment.

Maria Prymachenko- A Dragon Descends on Ukraine, 1987

Maria Prymachenko- Beast,1936

Maria Prymachenko- Rat on a Journey, 1963

Intrepid– Part of Little Gems, West End Gallery

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth — more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid … Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.

― Bertrand Russell, Why Men Fight

Need to work this morning.

Don’t want to, don’t have to.

Need to.

That kind of morning.

Thought I’d share a triad of painting, thought and music. There are connections running through all three, no doubt, but I’m not going to point them out. That’s your task for today.

Here’s Wooden Ships from Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Blue Night Lucid— At the West End Gallery

And in the case of superior things like stars, we discover a kind of unity in separation. The higher we rise on the scale of being, the easier it is to discern a connection even among things separated by vast distances.

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

I wasn’t going to post anything this morning. Writing about art or music seemed trivial when the world appears to be at critical mass around the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The world has turned its head away so many times before as brutal unjust invasions and genocides have taken place around the globe. Intervention in these previous atrocities was sporadic at best. It was never fully unified and required nations to act unilaterally while others chose to look away, tending only to their own self interests.

As a result, we have, to our great shame, taken relatively little notice as atrocity, ethnic cleansing and genocide have taken place. Perhaps this has been based on our own prejudices against other races and ethnicities, perhaps because we blithely believe that we have no connection or interest in something taking place many thousands of miles away on a distant continent. Each of us can only say why for ourselves.

But the current moment in time and space taking place in Ukraine has seemingly galvanized the planet. It feels like an emblematic showdown between the dark forces of autocracy, personified in Putin with his history of iron fisted rule  through deceit and brutal thuggery, and those of democracy and self-determination in the guise of Zelensky and each of the defiant people of Ukraine.

It feels like this is a telling moment, one that could lead to even darker days ahead. Or one that could provide a clear path going forward that unites the world in an effort to cleanse the world of the oligarchy movement that has taken hold near and far.

Either way, it is as close to a true battle between good and evil as we have faced in some time. It’s a scary moment, to be sure, and maybe one would think that it doesn’t affect them and can therefore ignore it.

But the world is so interconnected and interdependent now that to attempt to ignore the situation is futile. Everything has a greater cause and effect now, spreading out quickly in waves around the globe instantaneously, causing ripples and consequences far from where its origins.

There is here now. Their time is our time. And this might be the time that we, united as one, make a stand and extinguish the current threat of evil.

I certainly don’t want war. Who does? The people of Ukraine certainly did not. But this feels like a situation where we can’t negotiate, reason, or appease our way to the other side.

Evil is not rational.

What is the answer?

As always, I don’t know.

I worry, pay attention, try to do what little I can. But I am hopeful because as I said above, I see a path forward that wasn’t apparent a mere week ago, one that has future freed from the power of oligarchs.

But that’s an image in the far distance. Much ground to cover and great sacrifices to give before it becomes any sort of reality.

But it is there.

And that is something to build on.

Last Kind Words– At the Principle Gallery

Leaning over this parapet I see far out a waste of water. A fin turns. This bare visual impression is unattached to any line of reason, it springs up as one might see the fin of a porpoise on the horizon. Visual impressions often communicate thus briefly statements that we shall in time come to uncover and coax into words.

― Virginia Woolf, The Waves

This excerpt above from Virginia Woolf had me thinking about optics, how the visual appearance of a thing communicates to others on a subconscious, emotional level. How we internally know our feelings on seeing that thing before we have had time to fully translate them into words or fully realized thoughts.

It’s a big part of being a visual artist. You want your work to communicate fully, even at a distance, before the viewer has time to think or comprehend what they are seeing.

You want that immediate electric emotional response that is beyond thought or words.

If only it were an easy task.

Apart from art, this also made me think about the optics of the unjust war taking place in Ukraine, especially as it pertains to their leaders. On one hand, you have President Zelensky who is shown with his troops and commanders, unshaved and in battle fatigues, defiantly standing on the streets of his besieged capital city. He also speaks directly and plainly to the people of Ukraine — and to the Russian people in addresses on Telegram.

It is immediately an image that one can see a people rallying behind, someone who sets an example that makes them want to stay and stand their ground. It is an inspirational image.

Then on the other hand, the images of Putin are of him speaking with his commanders and underlings in grand settings that have them placed at a minimum fifteen feet away from Putin. Sometimes, he sits at the head of a huge table, maybe thirty feet long, with a single person on one side near the opposite end.

It is a cold image, one that speaks of both power and fear.

It immediately brings to mind an image of a dictator who sits in a palace and eats rich foods– after his taster approves– while sending his conscripted troops to their death without a single drop of empathy for their suffering and sacrifice or for that of the normal citizens who will unjustly bear the brunt of the consequences of his actions.

It’s an image that makes one understand why, without even taking into account how senseless and unjustified this invasion has been, the world has rallied and united behind the leader and the people of the Ukraine.

Viva Nox (The Vivid Night)— At the West End Gallery

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

― Desmond Tutu

Stand
For the things you know are right
It’s the truth that the truth makes them so uptight

–Sly Stone, Stand!

Well, Kviv and Ukraine make it through another night, still stand this morning. They have already lasted longer against a Russian takeover than the Republican party.

It is far from over and will most likely result in hundreds, if not thousands, of additional civilian deaths beyond the over 200 Ukrainians men, women and children already killed by Russia’s random rocket attacks on cities and villages. This includes hospitals and all sorts of residential areas.

A human tragedy.

But the Ukraine resistance has been remarkable and smart. I viewed video yesterday from a vehicle going down a road as it passed dozens of burned out Russian support vehicles which carried all sorts of equipment from fuel to temporary bridges and large excavators.

Behind every invading force there is a trailing line of support carrying the supplies needed to execute the invasion. This is called a logistics tail. The idea of attacking a logistics tail is that you can cut off the invading force from the fuel, food, and ammunition needed to resupply, effectively isolating them. This shortens the window of opportunity for the invading force to conquer the attacked nation. If the invaders don’t get the job done within this window after losing their logistics tail, they become very vulnerable to counterattacks and potential defeat.

It’s an immensely vital aspect of warfare that is often overlooked by casual observers, such as myself. The saying is: Amateurs talk tactics and professionals talk logistics.

I am hoping that the Ukraine forces have been able to cripple the Russian logistics tail enough so that it soon becomes apparent that a lasting victory and occupation will be impossible to achieve and that the Russians will be forced to sue for peace and withdraw.

But until that time, it’s a nation in the midst of a humanitarian and existential crisis. The lives and futures of so many innocent people are at stake. It is also important for the rest of the world in that it provides a glimpse of what might be in all our futures if might overcomes right.

Let’s hope that the people of Ukraine can remain standing. 

Here’s Sly and the Family Stone and their song Stand! for this week’s Sunday morning music.

“We are all here.“– Zelensky in Kviv

Who is left in the ghetto is the one man in a thousand in any age, in any culture, who through some mysterious workings of force within his soul will stand in defiance against any master. He is that one human in a thousand whose indomitable spirit will not bow. He is the one man in a thousand whose indomitable spirit cannot bow. He is the one man in a thousand who will not walk quietly to Umschlagplatz. Watch out for him, Alfred Funk, we have pushed him to the wall.

― Leon Uris, Mila 18

The fight is here: I need ammunition, not a ride.

-Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky 

These were the words from Ukraine President Zelensky in response to being asked why he didn’t flee to another Western nation in the face of the Russian army’s advance on Kviv.

Words that will no doubt have some place of honor in history.

It was but one example of the many acts of defiance by the citizens of Ukraine in recent days.

There was the lady who confronted a Russian soldier on the street, his automatic weapon across his chest. Dropping multiple f-bombs, she asked him who he was and why he was here, uninvited. She threw sunflower seeds at him and told him to put them in his pockets so that at least flowers would grow from the Ukrainian soil where he would soon die.

Or the Ukrainian soldier in a video who spoke in Russian so that the Russian soldiers would understand. Working on his weapon as he spoke confidently with wide smile to the camera, he said, Dudes, you are fucked.  

More words that might go down in history.

It is early in the conflict and my heart hurts for the people of the Ukraine as well as for the young conscripted Russian soldiers who have found themselves in battles they did not expect since by Russian law only volunteer soldiers are to be on the frontlines.

It seems so unfair to those on both sides who are left to suffer and die for an invasion that has no apparent purpose nor legitimate rationale.

Senseless.

But it is a conflict that seems symbolic of the struggles taking place here and around the world between the forces of democracy versus those of autocracy and oligarchy. It demands our attention as it may be more than symbolic– it may be the beginning of a struggle on a much wider stage.

A note: The Umschlagplatz mentioned in the excerpt at the top from Leon Uris’ novel of the Warsaw Ghetto of WW II, Mila 18, was the staging area adjacent to the railroad stations where the Jewish people were herded and kept while waiting for transfer to the various concentration camps.

High in the Hills– Now at the Kada Gallery, Erie PA

I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.

― W. Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil

I made a quick trip to Erie PA yesterday to deliver some fresh work and meet the new owner of the Kada Gallery, Doug Scalise, who takes over the rein in the wake of the retirement of my longtime friend, Kathy DeAngelo.

It was a good visit and I left feeling very much encouraged by Doug’s vision for the future of the gallery. He is a youthful, affable guy with a lively entrepreneurial spirit. Good energy. We agreed on a date for a solo show of new work at the gallery later in the year, on November 11, 2022. Really looking forward to it.

So, yesterday was a good day, a hopeful day.

Unfortunately, this morning I began to watch and read about the invasion of Ukraine. It was disheartening, to say the least.

One of the first things I saw was video shot from an apartment in Ukraine, looking out on a wide boulevard. In it, an armored, tracked vehicle of some sort is rolling at a good pace down the wide street as small sedan is approaching from the opposite direction on the far side of the street. The armored vehicle suddenly swerves and comes directly across the street and runs over and completely rushes the car.

The remainder of the video is of citizens trying to extricate, with only a steel bar and a hammer, the driver who has somehow miraculously survived the assault and whose lower body is trapped ( and no doubt severely damaged) under the crushed front of his vehicle.

I watched the beginning of the video a few times, the part with the actual assault from the armored vehicle. I was struck and enraged by the senseless cruelty and inhumanity in the act.

It was not an accident. It was a decision by the operator of that armored vehicle to crush that passing vehicle and kill its driver.

And for what purpose?

It was just a passing car, not a military vehicle nor an apparent threat. It appears to just be a senseless and random act of cruelty, the work of a heartless bully without any concern for who they hurt, even an innocent civilian, because they know they will not experience any repercussions.

They will write it off as being part of the chaos of war even though it was an obviously conscious decision.

There were more scenes that could cite– mothers sleeping and consoling with their children on the floors of the subways which now serve as bomb shelters as the Russians bomb both military and civilian sites., including apartment buildings.

Or the thirteen Ukrainian border patrol officers who refused to surrender a small 40 acre island west of the Crimea to a Russian warship. When ordered to surrender they responded via the radio, “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.”

All thirteen were killed.

And all I can ask is: For what purpose?

There is no apparent nor authentic rationale for this war. It only serves greed and a thirst for power, the same factors that have created a sense of chaos and division throughout the entire world in recent years.

Many of us think we can just ignore it and it will go away, never affecting us. It’s thousand of miles away, across the ocean after all.

But that’s not the way the world works.

We have turned our heads away too many times before and that only emboldens and normalizes acts of cruelty and inhumanity by those who are power hungry.

Evil cannot be ignored. Unchecked evil will eventually find its way to those who attempt to do so, maybe even in the streets of our own cities and villages.

I am paying attention, not turning away. But even so, I need to try to find something to make sense in this time of crisis and chaos. I am fortunate to have my work to fall into, something that gives me a glimpse of the potential for beauty, as described in the Maugham excerpt at the the top.

Maybe that’s the ultimate purpose of all art, to give us a pattern that leads us out of the inevitable chaos we all face at some point in our time on this planet.

I certainly hope that is holds true for this moment.

 Pax Terram— At the West End Gallery

It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV:3

My interest is always piqued when I come across a bit of wisdom from Marcus Aurelius, the 2nd century AD Roman emperor. Aurelius was also a Stoic philosopher whose book Meditations with its observations on living a good and virtuous life still reverberates in the present day.

Wisdom then is wisdom now.

We often tend to think of Stoics as being kind of emotionless due to their attempts to have control over their reactions and passions. But that self-control is but a small part of Stoicism.

Their classic principles are often categorized as:

• Nature: Nature is rational.
• Law of Reason: The universe is governed by the law of reason. Humans can’t actually escape its inexorable force, but they can, uniquely, follow the law deliberately.
• Virtue: A life led according to rational nature is virtuous.
• Wisdom: Wisdom is the the root virtue. From it spring the cardinal virtues: insight, bravery, self-control, and justice.
• Apathea: Since passion is irrational, life should be waged as a battle against it. Intense feeling should be avoided.
• Pleasure: Pleasure is neither good nor bad. It is only acceptable if it doesn’t interfere with the quest for virtue.
• Evil: Poverty, illness, and death are not evil.
• Duty: Virtue should be sought, not for the sake of pleasure, but for duty.

A simplified modern take is as follows:

1: Focus on what you can control.
2: Take action.
3: Be virtuous.
4: Lead by example.
5: Diminish your ego.
6: You’re not entitled to anything.
7: Exercise your will.
8: Practice resilience when faced with obstacles, failure, or tragedy.
9: Choose your response.
10: Be grateful.

You can see how the principles of Stoicism might be the basis for many 12-Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

Just a basic outline for living a better life, inner and outer. Its principles often end up being the object of much of my work.

Like I said, wisdom then is wisdom now.

Everlasting Bond– At the Principle Gallery

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic ’til I’m gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove

Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

-Leonard Cohen, Dance Me to the End of Love

I have a piece on the easel that is calling out to me this morning that needs my attention. It’s nearing that point where it takes on its own life so I am eager to get to work. Thus, I don’t have much to say this morning though there certainly is enough craziness and danger in the world right now on which to comment.

The painting above, Everlasting Bond, and the song below have a common theme, one that is the antithesis to the perils of these times: Love.

The song is Madeline Peyroux‘s version of Dance Me to the End of Love from the late Leonard Cohen. It has a jazzy, swingy feel. A good way to kick off what I hope will be a good work day.