We are living in myths. Our peace of mind requires that all the facts and elements of the “real world” (as we name it) must be explained somehow, otherwise, the confusion may cause the mental breakdown. And, since we’re not supercomputers, but humans – we build myths, myths in which everything that surrounds us has its own place and meaning. Northern people’s myths are not fairy tales, they are (were) their reality in its most understandable and meaningful state. People of the North seems to be too busy to survive in the extreme conditions of the “edge of the world”, nevertheless they formed a culture (and culture actually is the sum of myths) so consummate and picturesque, and in some aspects so different from the European (Western) tradition, that fascinates me deeply, that could not fail to inspire the artist.
Why North, but anything else. This question in general reminds another one: Why people fall in love? Well, it doesn’t need much: brief look, sudden turn, a glimpse of the evening sun or so. Just a little bit of something. So is with an artist. Even a miserable impulse could be enough to wake the volcano of sorcery. Can’t say exactly, what served me as such an impulse. May be the discovery of the fact that the Inuit language contains almost nothing of course words, or the picture of the Northern lights. But that is only about “because”, or what was the “cause”, impulse, push, kick, you name it.The “reason” why is another story. The reason is much more solid ground, and here I have to say: I always was and am interested and fascinated in archaic cultures.
World is crumbling apart, disintegrating into small particles and smithereens. I’m trying to collect those pieces and reassemble them into a picture of the world, as I remember it, as I imagine it used to be. It’s a hard job, because they are resisting to concur to each other, and some are missing forever, so it needs to find some regularity, a kind of consistent pattern and force fields lines, in a purpose to combine all this scattered stuff.
Loneliness. Reople use this word by default as a name of a bad condition. It used to be a sign of bad mood, sad, unfortunate existence. The cultural stereotype of a lonely human being has undoubtfully negative quality. Loneliness became a synonym of sadness, bad luck, unhappiness, lostness, abandonment etc. Meanwhile, the loneliness is the only condition when ones personality could exist, “I” could exist. It is not enough, indeed, still I have to clean myself, my “I” from all those dresses, mask, chains of social interaction, but it is imperative.