This boy's beloved and established world is crumbling. Amid the roar of fire sirens, devastation, and panic, he saves his most precious possession—a fragile model airplane, perhaps the only reminder of that peaceful life when he carefully assembled this contraption.
Now these two fragile creatures cannot find a place for themselves in this dying world. The toy and the military airship, the touching and the aggressive, are fatally incompatible.
Someday everything will be fine, and another boy will build his own model airplane, giving the world new hope.
The era of space exploration and scientific discovery has arrived. Cities have sprung up in deserts, spaceships fly to other planets, and we think we know our world well enough.
But there's the Vatican—the starting point of religions and a treasure trove of historical knowledge. What do we know about it? Apparently, nothing. The Vatican reveals itself to everyone differently. The Vatican is closed and multifaceted. No one knows what mask it will wear this time.
In a harsh land of eternal snows lives a lonely guardian, the Keeper of Winter. He sits at the foot of a gigantic, rusty mechanism that was once part of an ancient device. Now the mechanism has stopped, and only the Keeper guards its secret.
The enormous metal form behind him is a reminder of the past, of a time when people tried to control nature by brute force.
"The Keeper of Winter" is an image of utmost calm and responsibility, a man who knows that to preserve the world, even the smallest, however fragile, miracle must be protected.
The cosmonaut stands among vibrant, almost fantastical craters, whose unreal colors highlight the laws of a world distinct from Earth. His pose and the flag he planted express determination and a desire for knowledge—a moment of affirmation: "We are here."
Comets cutting through the sky suggest hidden life or energy, transforming the planet into a living organism. The entire scene is a metaphor for the human journey: a step into the unknown, where fear and beauty, danger and inspiration intertwine.
The painting seems to tell the viewer that the greatest discoveries are born where we dare to go beyond the boundaries of the familiar.
In a world where civilization has dissolved in the sands of time, only the memoryless heirs remain—the robots. These mechanical beings don't know who created them, but they try to reconstruct the past from the fragments.
For robots, the rainbow is a symbol, a mystery, an echo of human culture.
Crafted from wood, fragile, imperfect, and angular, it becomes a metaphor for memory, which the machines strive to piece together.
Even devoid of emotion, these creatures are drawn to meaning. Perhaps there's a note of hope in their painstaking, moving work: they continue to search for what made us human.
Times have changed, people and their ideals have changed. Every era has its own objects of worship, and idols that have passed into another era sometimes find no place.
They were once gods to people, but now they are mere exhibits in an island museum. Scientific breakthroughs, the search for gender identity, and political unrest have had a negative impact on the idols.
Humanity, having lost its bearings, has also changed its attitude toward the idols of old. People will change, eras will change, but the stone idols of Easter Island will still gaze out to sea, yearning for their era, remembering their people.
What, exactly, is the tree of civilization? How far back does it go? Stone idols—majestic witnesses of bygone eras—stand, silently observing what is happening.
They, who arose at the origins of our world, look upon us as they did upon those who created them, and then upon hundreds of others, and upon thousands who will come after them. Generations ago, people worshiped them, but now all that has lost its meaning.
For us, they are witnesses to the birth of the tree of civilization, and for them, we are merely one of those who have arrived now.
The idols of Easter Island, motionless and silent, what do they conceal behind the detachment of their faces?
But they are only alike at first glance. With different faces, they perhaps also have different personalities. But what if they could speak? What would these strange creatures converse about, what topics might they discuss?
Perhaps, when the shore empties and these enormous stone statues are left alone, their dialogue begins, a "Dialogue of the Idols."
Tin grows from the ground—a symbol of a world where the artificial has finally supplanted the living. Ragged metal shoots continue to grow and multiply even after civilization itself has collapsed. They embody bitterness, accumulated trauma, and the consequences of a lost harmony with nature.
A fallen head among the stones is a silent witness to its own decline. Here, tin is not just a material, but a new "vegetation" of the world, growing in the place of what was once alive—a reminder of the price man pays for the destruction of that which sustained his existence.
The painting visualizes the internal psychological rift that occurs during moments of extreme emotional stress. The central image is a man's face, distorted by fear, bewilderment, and helplessness. His facial expressions convey a state in which the mind no longer belongs to itself: it has become an arena where impulses, anxieties, and obsessive thoughts collide.
The hands reaching out to him are symbols of hysteria as a multi-armed creature invading personal space. These hands are simultaneously thin, fragile, and obsessively tender, creating a paradox: what torments appears almost harmless.
The painting is a visual flash of memory, penetrating the thickness of metal and time. Through the rust of the submarine, like through an old sarcophagus encrusted with salt and seaweed, the faces of the sailors emerge—not ghosts, but imprints of their final moments, frozen in the rough texture of the hull.
The submarine's hull here is more than just metal. It is the material memory of tragedy, absorbing emotions, fear, and last hope, turning human destinies into layers of corrosion.
She's arguably the finest of the traveling actors. And it's not just her skill, but the Queen's magical gift that makes her inimitable.
These cheerful characters travel the world, led by their leader. A Trojan horse with actors inside—isn't this the grotesque spectacle of the ensuing buffoonery?
The painting "Dream" reveals the space between reality and the subconscious, where logic dissolves and meanings take the form of symbols. The viewer is presented with a journey in which the characters simultaneously resemble jesters, travelers, and guides through a dream world. Their costumes are colorful, grotesque, and devoid of functionality—like images emerging in a dream, they exist only in their own symbolism.
"Dream" is a journey through an inner world, where oddities acquire weight and symbols begin to speak. The painting invites the viewer to become a participant in this journey and recognize their own personal dreams in the images.
The painting can be seen as a tribute to the traditions of maritime folklore and jazz music. It also hints at how even in the strict naval life there is room for art and joy. Music becomes a connecting link between sailors and those on deck, creating an atmosphere of unity and celebration.
Thus, "Sailor's Jazz" is not simply a depiction of a musical group, but a story about how art can bring light and joy even in life's most unexpected moments.
The concept of the painting "Girl's Dream" reveals the space of a child's subconscious, where reality gently morphs into fantasy. The girl on the bed is a symbol of naivety and inner silence, while the distorted houses, windows, and strange images surrounding her demonstrate how the familiar world changes shape and meaning in dreams.
Imagination has no strict rules. Each element becomes a reflection of the child's emotional experiences. The painting invites the viewer to glimpse a world where dream and reality intertwine, creating their own magical logic.
The forgotten spacesuit on the Moon is an empty shell, a monument to itself, a silent witness to the discoveries that were unfolding.
For many years to come, Earth will be reflected in the glass of his helmet—the planet to which he was never destined to return.
There's a special poignancy in this situation: as if the thing itself remembers its purpose and reaches out for a home that remains unattainable.
The Moon is motionless and indifferent, but this silence makes the image resonate even more powerfully.
"Fly" is a story about how liberation begins not with a sudden step, but with a quiet agreement to let go. The painting reminds us that for something new to come into our lives, we must let the past fly away.
The old cart behind him symbolizes the baggage of the past. It looks rickety and unnecessary, as if the hero has finally stopped dragging it along. What was once a burden now lies behind, dissolving into the sunny landscape.
The painting conveys a sense of collective movement, the power of nature, and the primordial rhythm of life. "The Herd" becomes a metaphor for natural law: animals move not because someone leads them, but because an inner force dictates their path.
"The Herd" is a painting about the power of collective instinct, about natural wisdom, which has no words but knowledge. It shows that sometimes moving forward is not a choice, but an inevitability, drawn into by life itself.
© All rights reserved Andrey Ivashkin. Any use or copying of materials is permitted only with the permission of the copyright holder.