Welcome to ancient Rome where a trained man, a gladiator, fights a panther in an arena — what a horrible thing! Well, it’s probably not so horrible scene now as it was seen years and years ago when a writer of the blog was chiseling his piece of art. Please don’t judge the author too harshly for his naivë expression of the world. The author was young and impressible back then. He just wanted to be a part of a fight. Hence, the outcome of the disease. Enjoy.
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It has taken me awhile to turn my face toward limitless heritage of my country. In retrospective, when I engaged in conversations with my friends about Canada’s culture, the first thought pop up in my mind was a unique culture of the First Nations. As far as I can perceive it, the issue of the First Nations is the only one that is not being widely publicized in any mainstream media; it’s hardly being covered in blogs as well.
Probably I should devote more time to writing on this exuberant topic because few people have an idea of how deeply touching the art of the aboriginal people is.
Meantime, we have no choice but admit that history of aboriginal peoples in Canada is unique and extremely compelling for both a typical academic and a man of the street – – they all would definitely find something that is near to their heart.
Before we go any further, let us enjoy an aboriginal version of Oh, Canada, Canada’s National Anthem. O’ Kanata is the best song ever!
Inuktitut
ᐆ ᑲᓇᑕ!
ᓇᖕᒥᓂ ᓄᓇᕗᑦ!
ᐱᖁᔭᑏ ᓇᓚᑦᑎᐊᖅᐸᕗᑦ.
ᐊᖏᒡᓕᕙᓪᓕᐊᔪᑎ,
ᓴᙱᔪᓗᑎᓪᓗ.
ᓇᖏᖅᐳᒍ, ᐆ ᑲᓇᑕ,
ᒥᐊᓂᕆᑉᓗᑎᑎ.
ᐆ ᑲᓇᑕ! ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊ!
ᓇᖏᖅᐳᒍ ᒥᐊᑎᓂᕆᑉᓗᑎ,
ᐆ ᑲᓇᑕ, ᓴᓚᒋᔭᐅᖁᓇ!
Official English
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
In case you loved the singing, you are always welcome to visit a native place of the song — a site from where I shamelessly borrowed the song. Cheers.
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Here you go. There is one other piece of masterpiece has arrived. I do not believe there are much words should be spoken describing the Women with a Flower — it’s all in front of you. Nevertheless, I would probably contribute one word to the bank of common knowledge.
I created this piece in memory of my first love with whom, as it’s commonly found, we separated in the season of our youth. I had begun this piece when we had still been like two peas in a pod, and finished it off soon after we broke up. Life is full of fun, eh?
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Today we are about to leave Georgia and move to Russia, the country rich with the oldest ancestry of art.
The topic for today is a Russian joker — a skomorokh.
The skomorokhs (Sing. скоморох in Russian, скоморохъ in Old East Slavic, скоморaхъ in Church Slavonic) were medieval East Slavic harlequins, i.e. actors, who could also sing, dance, play musical instruments and compose most of the scores for their oral/musical and dramatic performances. The etymology of the word is not completely clear.[1] There are hypotheses that the word is derived from the Greek σκώμμαρχος (cf. σκῶμμα, “joke”); from the Italian scaramuccia (“joker”, cf. English scaramouch); from the Arabic masẋara; and many others.
[…]
The skomorokhs performed in the streets and city squares engaging with the spectators to draw them into their play. Usually the main character of the skomorokh performance was a fun-loving saucy muzhik (мужик) of comic simplicity. In the 16th–17th century the skomorokhs would sometimes combine their efforts and perform in a vataga (ватага, or big crowd) numbering 70 to 100 people. The skomorokhs were often persecuted by the Russian Orthodox Church and civilian authorities.
It’s true that skomorokhs were actors who played on different musical instruments — such as gusli, rozhok, or balalaika — in ancient Russia. In my incused piece of art, as a case in point, I portrayed skomorokh with balalaika.
Chewing over the topic of ancient Russian performers, it’s really hard to avoid a comparison of skomorokhs with yurodivy, who were a sorta Russian preachers in medieval Russia. The similarity between the two is the essence of their job: both skomorohs and yurodivy were quick at telling an inconvenient truth about the current affairs in Russia.
The yurodivy (Russian: юродивый, yurodivy) is the Russian version of Foolishness in Christ (Russian: юродство, yurodstvo or jurodstvo), a peculiar form of Eastern Orthodox asceticism. The yurodivy is a Holy Fool, one who acts intentionally foolish in the eyes of men. The term implies behaviour “which is caused neither by mistake nor by feeble-mindedness, but is deliberate, irritating, even provacative.
[…]
Some characteristics that were commonly seen in holy fools were going around half-naked, being homeless, speaking in riddles, being believed to be clairvoyant and a prophet, and occasionally being disruptive and challenging to the point of seeming immoral (though always to make a point).
In their seemingly obvious resemblance, however, skomorokhs and yurodivy had distinct dissimilarities between them. One of the most vivid distinctions is that skomorokhs could be decapitated for their performances; yet, yurodivy were untouchable — and for good reason, they were perceived as the voice of the Lord.
emphasis mine
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My piece of art but I depart
♥♥♥
Welcome to my virtual art gallery which will probably consist of … a couple of pieces I punched in my previous life. Years have flied since I kissed the hobby goodbye. Yet, when people see my “masterpieces” they always ask me to extrude something for them, on crying of whom I always react with a polite form of denial. People keep asking; I keep turning everything into a joke…
Well, today we are going to learn about Tamar of Georgia, a Queen of Georgia centuries ago.
Tamar (Georgian: თამარი, also transliterated as T’amar or Thamar) (c. 1160 – 18 January 1213), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was Queen Regnant of Georgia from 1184 to 1213. Tamar presided over the “Golden age” of the medieval Georgian monarchy. Her position as the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right was emphasized by the title mep’e (“king”), commonly afforded to Tamar in the medieval Georgian sources.
I was inspired to create this piece by one of the Georgian masters who taught me Art mixed with Georgian philosophy and peppered with its history. It was great time. I learned lots of stuff which I keep chewing over and over again, throughout the years. Eventually I departed from the life of an artist; the daily routine of worldly life won the battle over my soul — I was pardoned/punished? by kicked out from The Celestial Empire straight down to Earth, where I have happily been dwelling ever since.
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AleXXays 