The Forest is the theme I come back to again and again. I generally like working in series, but Forest is more than just a series for me. I started thinking of it as a semi-real place where I go almost every day, to think, to calm down or to get Strength from. The notion of Forest has been, throughout the human history, that of a place where the norms and rules of behavior were suspended.  It is vast, sometimes dark, never totally benign. It is a place of mysteries, danger and beauty and sustenance. Spiritually, I wanted to paint/draw/print the Forest because I wanted to walk into it, talk to it and ultimately find myself in it. From the technical point of view I wanted to learn how to paint “the architecture” of something so organic. I did not want to paint just trees, one by one placed on the canvas. I wanted the space to feel at once One and Many, the Whole and a myriad of details, snatched out of abstract shapes. I wanted to learn to paint something so complex and alive.

Over the years, people started appearing in my forest. A lot of them are based on my wonderful Russian family, mostly they are memories of how the people move, memories of body types and gestures. They are walking through the Forest as we walk through life (at the risk of sounding purple). Mostly they are groups of people on the way to somewhere. I wanted to feel that sense of companionship, adventure together, somewhat of a common purpose.

But sometimes there is just a couple or one figure. I start painting and wait to see who shows up.