Saint Basil

2021

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(Exhibited in 2022 at the Schneider Museum of Art)

(in private collection, Oregon)

One of the largest families of local anesthetics came from the discovery of eugenol in many herbs and spices, including cloves and basil. I imagine a forest of basil, under which this saint rests, catching drops of Holy Eugenol, somewhere in medieval Persia, which may be where the most popular strain of basil originated. I studied orthodox saints and I’ve noticed that none of them lie down, unless they are dead. I guess it’s not polite for them to relax in front of their god. This is unnecessarily strict, and dated. In Eugene, I met Naeemeh. She is from Iran, and she pointed out an old story of a Persian king who saved a large snake. The snake was so grateful, it spit up seeds of the royal basil plant, as a gift.

Saint Chloroplast

2021

30" x 40"

wood & acrylic

(Exhibited in 2022 at the Schneider Museum of Art)

(in private collection, Oregon)

Nature is a magician. It produces constant gifts for us. Those gifts are often invisible, but completely essential for most life on earth. Every little leaf around us is an advanced machine that eats carbon, sunlight, and water to produce sugar and oxygen. It truly deserves honor and respect. No human engineering can recreate that machine. In this painting, sugar is represented by a muffin. Carbon is represented by a mouse -- so many of these little fellows died so we could understand the process. In the center is the magic green molecule, chlorophyll, which absorbs just the right wavelengths of sunlight.

Saint Pea

2020

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(Exhibited in 2022 at the Schneider Museum of Art)

Observations about pea hybridization by village farmers, who were almost always women, led Gregor Mendel, who grew up in such a village, to conduct the first modern genetic research. Rigorous experiments allowed Mendel to build a mathematical model of inherited characteristics. If you cross-pollinate purple and white peas, the recessive white gene is expressed only after skipping one generation. That would explain why I look like my grandmother. And Saint Pea smiles down upon us all.

Sister Maize

2022

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(Exhibited in 2022 at the Schneider Museum of Art)

(in private collection, Oregon)

Sister Bean

2022

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(Exhibited in 2022 at the Schneider Museum of Art)

(in private collection, Oregon)

These paintings were inspired by the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The Three Sisters - Maize, Squash, and Bean - provide an example of a symbiotic relationship between nature and agriculture. They convey an ancient practice that’s much more effective than today’s industrialized monoculture, which exhausts the land and destroys the natural world. Native people planted these three plants near forest edges, or inside of forest openings, where soil is rich and sunlight plentiful. The sisters help each other, like sisters do. Sister Bean provides nitrogen to the soil, Sister Squash keeps slugs and snails away with her spikiness, and Sister Corn provides a scaffold for Sister Bean to climb. If you eat them together - your diet is properly balanced with fiber, proteins, vitamins, and tasty flavors. The Sisters are gifted, smart and powerful.

Sister Squash

2022

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(Exhibited in 2022 at the Schneider Museum of Art)

(in private collection, Oregon)

The Holy Assembly of Borsch

2022

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Oregon)

Autumn is harvest time.
After the hard work is over, it’s time to enjoy the roots of our labor.
What better way to appeciate this bounty than as a community?
Everyone brings something to the table.
That’s how an amazing and unique dish such as borsch is created.
Twelve friends combine their efforts to create this
colorful, festive deliciousness.

The Resurrection of Life

2021

72" x 30" (triptych)

wood & acrylic

(Exhibited in 2022 at the Schneider Museum of Art)

I’m saddened by the continued destruction of ways of living that are in harmony with nature. As a result of this destruction we survive, in a way, but we cannot be fully alive. The people in the center of the destruction seem to live in terrible fantasies within which we are, unfortunately, forced to struggle. But for me, this is a hopeful painting. When we see what is wrong, we can fix the problems, and ressurect our harmonious relationship with nature, again living lives that are fair, stable, beautiful, and complete.

Saint Date Palm

2020

24" x 30"

wood & acrylic

(Exhibited in 2022 at the Schneider Museum of Art)

(in private collection, Oregon)

Phoenix dactylifera - it makes the deserts bloom. It also inspired the creation of the ancient pump - what was later called "Archimedes’ Screw", which pumped water into the famous gardens of Nineveh, which we call the Gardens of Babylon. The Akkadian word for this pump is the same as that for the date palm. The palm trunk forms a helix, which water cascades down in a spiral, so the pump simply rotates the helix in order to raise water.

Saint Bearberry

2023

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

Bearberry or Kinnikinnick or Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi ... "According to an Anishinaabe legend, after Bear and Otter pushed the first tree of life from the underworld up into the surface world, Bear was curious about the newly unfurled animals living on the surface. When he approached a group of them, they all scattered, leaving only an infant behind. Bear studied the infant, noticing that it did not have a berry hanging down in the back of its throat. Bear knew that this part of his anatomy helped to keep all the berries that he consumed from coming back up. So Bear looked around and found a short mat of vine-like plants with shiny green leaves and red berries. He plucked one of the berries and put it into the baby's mouth. In so doing, Bear ensured that the people would be able to keep their food down and not starve." - from Iwígara, by Enrique Salmón

Saint Larkspur

2023

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Minnesota)

Larks are lurking in the airy woods of the middle Spring. You can hear them singing somewhere between the earth and the sky. The edge of the forest sparkles with cobalt blue bird-like creatures that fly with the wind and create the forest fabric - a very complicated living canvas in the woods. I always feel they can hear us, like angels can listen to what we are talking about through the ribbons on their heads (in iconography they're called “gossips”- “slukhi”).

Saint Foxglove

2023

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Oregon)

There are some rumors that foxes like to dance at night wearing gloves and other accessories ... I love that idea about this plant. Foxglove is the native name for this British flower and heart medicine. But I think of it as Digitalis Purpurea, because the name is closer to the Russian name I know - naperstianka or thimble flower. Of course this comes from the shape of the flower, which was perfected by thousands of years of natural selection to be a passage for the most preferable pollinator - the bumble bee. What an admirable goal! Foxgloves are always arching, heavy with pollinators and blooms, while the Fox is quietly sewing together healthy hearts with her magic thimbles ...

Saint Cattail

2023

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

The glow! The glow of the cattail at sunset reminds me of a cathedral of glowing nimbuses under a sky dome. She is a mother of many. She protects and cares, she gives food, and provides shelter. Her son is an otter, her daughter a water lily ... and her neighbor is a mountain lion, who likes to pass by, brushing her with his soft cat tail.

Saint Sorrel

2023

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Oregon)

Plants are good to animals. And animals are good to plants. They figured out how to live in harmony and benefit each other. We have the ability to observe all their processes, and make the right decision: to participate in this smart system. We can make our existence more fair, helpful, and enjoyable for other creatures. No one gets hurt. It’s magic.

Saint Rabbit's Foot Clover

2023

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Oregon)

Some plants are stronger and braver than the others. Who wants to live next to a polluted dirty road, and constantly struggle with low nourishment? Who wants to help and clean this mess? Rabbit's Foot Clover! He is always at our feet, friendly and fluffy, offering wonderful tea, and taking care of our mischief ... We should say thank you to him, and bow to his existence and generosity.

Saint Crabapple

2024

16" x 20"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Oregon)

It’s called a “crab” apple because of the way the tree grows: it’s spikier and stiffer than a normal apple tree. The shape and idea of of these crabby branches made me dive into the underwater world of real crabs. If you think about it, everything comes from underwater. If you go far enough back in evolutionary time, you find the crab and the crabapple to be relatives, as are all creatures ... we all come from the ocean.

Saint Rattlesnake Plantain

2023

16" x 20"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Oregon)

I walked in the woods near Alsea Falls in late January, trying to find the last winter chanterelles, or maybe hedgehog mushrooms. Suddenly I see this robust green mandala-like plant, with an intricate white animalistic pattern. Huge, probably centuries-old tree stumps, were glowing around me in a second-growth forest, like sad grave stones ... Like monuments of the destruction that happened to this land. Rattlesnake Plantain was my portal to earlier times, when those trees where still growing and people understood them.

Saint Cuckoo's Tears

2023

16" x 20"

wood & acrylic

Some plants have a very quiet presence, but very romantic names, and I have memories of them. Cuckoo’s Tears (briza grass), is a plant I used to collect and dry for the winter’s bouquets, because even when it’s dry it has this quality of shivering and trembling, like it’s still alive. Like most grasses, the small heart-shaped flowers of Cuckoo’s Tears hold water drops in a special way, as if they’re dripping with tears. I always wondered: why are cuckoos crying? They have an unfortunate reputation in the nests of other birds. But all of them are orphans, abandoned by parents who were also orphans, so the trauma continues. Maybe that’s why they’re crying. They never had their real mother’s love.

St. Catnip and Her Disciples

2024

16" x 20"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Oregon)

Nature provides soothing treatments for all its creatures. I noticed that in my garden, in one particular corner, I always have the heaviest cat traffic. After investigating, I found the cause of this communal gathering. Catnip, or catmint (nepeta cataria) was growing wild. Instead of going to psychiatrists, cats relax in catnip corners, to take the edge off, and lower their anxiety about the modern world.

Saint Fawn Lily

2023

16" x 20"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Oregon)

What is hiding in the forest floor? What does the forest let us see? How could these plants be so incredibly sophisticated, with patterns and survival mechanisms so rational and so beautiful? The fawn lily is next to fawn tracks - they've lived with each other for such a long time ...

Saint Willow

2020

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, California)

Saint Buckwheat

2024

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Minnesota)

Saint Daphne

2019

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Oregon)

Saint Cannabis

2016

24" x 30"

wood & acrylic

(exhibited in 2017 at the University of Oregon Faculty Club, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art)

Saint Asparagus

2017

24" x 30"

wood & acrylic

(private collection, Oregon)

St. Crispin

2014

20" x 24"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Oregon)

Black Tulip

2016

11" x 14"

wood & acrylic

(private collection, Idaho)

White Anemone

2016

11" x 14"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Idaho)

Rose and Chocolate

2016

16" x 20"

wood & acrylic

(in private collection, Germany)
(Album cover Unity)

St. Cotton

2013

5" x 7"

wood & acrylic

(private collection, California)