SKETCHBOOK OF LIFE
120 IMAGES FROM
IVO SIRAKOV
GODS A HUM One of the many mysteries of the Universe is the human race. Perhaps we are a "cultivated" species, programmed for a purpose that escapes us, created with a meticulous genetic engineering and a specific expiration date for what our time is limited, finite. Could this be why simply existing is not enough? We are a species that can not find peace in anything, we are too curious to not want to know, always questioning our own desires, our aspirations or our identity. We fight against the inevitable and we believe in conflicts. Why do we risk so much? If we are victims, not only by external causes, but by our own nature, is it worth sacrificing ourselves to understand? Inspired by the sci-fi novel by the writer Anna Bay, the painter Ivo Sirakov takes us to a change of perspective, to question our existence with brush strokes of an aggressive red, present in almost all his paintings.
Are we humans aspiring to be gods or, on
ALMOST ANS Perhaps we are the echoes of a distant past, lesser gods escaped from the reins of a greater power and which we have not yet been able to overcome completely. If the species that survives is not the strongest, nor the most intelligent, but the most adaptable to change, then how gods, intimately we are, we should not have any problem. We can change, we can be more than death and destruction, we can be gods almost human in search of a lost purpose. The painter fills our eyes with the color red, in its different tonalities, for emphasizing the dilemma. Why red? Because it is the only color that immediately evokes two opposite meanings: life and death, red love and blood red. If for each successful progress, there is an evolutionary path with no way out that leads to extinction, if to survive it is necessary to adapt to change, to coexistence, red is the color that can define it well. We just have to choose its meaning.
the contrary, gods who try to be human?
BLACK RIVER
Preparative sepia drawing for ballerina concept
BLACKÂ RIVER Egg tempera on wood panel 2019
ANGEL
Sanguine drawing
NIBIRU
Oil on panel 2019
PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER
Egg tempera on linen
IOLE IN THE CHESTNUT FOREST by
ANNA BAY Children's fairy tales book illustration
LIFE RIVER
ATRAMENTUM Sepia drawing
ORDERING CHAOS
Charcoal drawing on paper
PIETRA NERA
Charcoal drawing
SIGNS
Pencil drawing
AIRÓN
Pencil drawing
LIFE WATERCOLOUR PENCIL
AZAZEL
Pencil drawing
ARTEMIS
Pencil drawing
MAGIC THINGS
Sepia drawing
ANTI
Pencil drawing
VENUS
Pencil drawing
EUTERPE OIL PAINTING ON CANVAS
Euterpe was born as one of the dauthers of Mnemosyne, Titan goddess of memory, and fathered by Zeus, God of the Gods. Her sisters include Calliope (muse of epic poetry), Clio (muse of history), Melpomene (muse of tragedy), Terpsichore (muse of dancing), Erato (muse of erotic poetry), Thalia (muse of comedy) Polyhymnia (muse of himns), and Urania (muse of astronomy). Somtimes they are refered to as water nymphs having been born from the four sacred springs on Helicon which flowed from the ground after Pegasus, the winged horse, stamped his hooves on the ground. The mountains spring on Mount Parnassus was sacred to Euterpe and the other Muses. It flowed betwin two hogh rock above the city of Delphi, and in ancient times its sacred waters were introduced into a square stone basin, where they were retained for the use of Pithia, the priests, priestesses, as the oracle of Apollo.
KOTKA E IMPU R
a remembered with nostalgia the original Kotka, because he had been a predator, cunning and brutal, whereas the current version was something quite different, not so famished and wild, although fierce and astute as his ancestor. However, now he used that cunning to look for the mimes, to snatch the hottest places in the ranch and to choose his companies carefully. So much effort put into this that, in some circumstances, it became difficult to establish who was the master and what the pet. His eyes undoubtedly saw something that they, all of them Annukari and Thracians, could not distinguish. Perhaps the passage of the dead or more likely to Nibiru, but nobody wanted to get rid of the idea that the animal could have some supernatural power and anyway his eyes helped to give credit to the stories. Always bored, pretentious and conceited seemed to confirm that the Kotka could really see another world and that, for that reason, everything that was around him was superfluous and secondary.
ANNUKARI.COM
BENDIS
B
endis was the ancient Thracian goddess of the moon and hunting who was worshipped with Bacchic-like orgies in the wilds of Thrake. The Greeks identified her with the goddesses Artemis, Hekate and Selene. Bendis may have been the Thracian goddess Kotys. His cult was introduced in Attica, whose arrival is usually related to the fact that at that time (431 BC) there were good relations between Athens and the Odrisian King Sitalces with the possible existence of a Trhracian colony in Piraeus, for the place of worship was established in Muniquia, near the sanctuary of Artemis, a divinity whith whom he tended to assimilate. It became so popular that in Plato's time (c. 400 BC) its festivities were naturalized as an official sity-state ceremony, called the Blessings. Among the events were lampadedromías (night torch races), mentioned in Plato, la República, 328: - "Haven't you heard there is a torch race tonight on horseback honor of the goddess?" - "On horseback?" - I said. - "It's a new idea. They will carry torches and pass them on the others when they run on horseback, or how do you think?" - "That's the way." - said Polemarco - "And besides, there is going to be a night party that will be worth seeing." Las Bendideas also featured a joint solemn of Athenians and Thracians to he Sanctuary of the goddess, locates in the bay of Piraeus. A red-figure (skiff at the University of Tübingen), about 440-430 BC., seems to commemorate the arrival of the newly authorized cult; it shows Themis (represented in traditional Athenian dress) and Bendis in boots, who wears a fox fur cape.
DON QUIJOTE DE LA MANCHA Oil on yute
CREATING WORDS OIL ON YUTE
THE TRUTH OF THE TITANS OF ART Study of
Velazquez Jose de Ribera Van Dick
JOSE DE
RIBERA
JOSE DE RIBERA The Martyrdom of Saint Philip Oil on canvas PRADO 1639
JOSE DE RIBERA Apolo y Marsias Oil on canvas 1639
DIEGO VE
LAZQUEZ
DIEGO VELAZQUEZ The Spinners, or the Fable of Arachne Oil on canvas 1655-1660
ANTON
VAN DICK