Category Archive: Art

St. Basil’s Cathedral, which stands in Moscow’s Red Square, was built for the Russian Czar Ivan the Terrible 460 years ago. According to legend, when it was completed Ivan lived up to his nickname and had the architect blinded, so that he could not build another.
The Cathedral’s domes have had to be repaired many times over the centuries, as the parts made of iron quickly rust, necessitating replacement every seven or eight years. Later the iron-clad patterned domes were given protective plating of durable copper. The job took about 40 tons of copper. The pieces were hand-forged to templates, and after being riveted were mounted on the domes.
The Cathedral was built on Red Square in 1555-1561. It is rightfully considered one of the main symbols not only of Moscow, but of the whole of Russia.
At the place where the cathedral is now, in the 16th century there was a stone Trinity Church. There was a defensive moat that stretched along the entire Kremlin wall along Red Square. This moat was filled up only in 1813. Now in its place there is the Soviet necropolis and the Mausoleum.
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One of the most ambiguous colors, yellow is the color of sunlight, gold, and happiness. Besides, it is the color of intellect and enlightenment. At the same time, it is the color of envy, disgrace, deceit, betrayal, and cowardice. In Islam, golden yellow is the color of wisdom, and during the Chinese Ch’ing dynasty (1644-1912), only the emperor could wear yellow.
However, in the Christian tradition, Judas wore a yellow cloak when he betrayed Jesus with a kiss. In his book “The Primary Colors”, Alexander Theroux expounds the enigma of yellow: “So few colors give the viewer such a feeling of ambivalence or leave in one such powerful, viscerally enforced connotations and contradictions. Desire and renunciation. Dreams and decadence. Shining light and shallowness. Gold here. Grief there. An intimate mirroring in its emblematic significance of glory in one instance and, in yet another, painful, disturbing estrangement. An opposing duality seems mysteriously constant.”
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Blue tree installations by a conceptual and social artist Konstantin Dimopoulos turn the landscape into something surreal, something from another world. The blue color brings peace and contentment. It radiates the calmness, steadiness, the need to rest and relax. The blue color represents the highest order of the mind. Its strength is in tranquility and rectitude. Sometimes the desire for blue means thirst for change. But these shocking blue tree installations aim to increase the social consciousness of the people on environmental problems.
People who prefer dark blue, the color of the night sky are travelers in the broadest sense of the word. They are eager to learn, extremely religious, feel that there is another world that ordinary people do not see beyond their mundane cares and troubles.
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Undoubtedly, Lochristi Begonia Festival, which takes place last weekend in August is worth visiting. A colorful celebration is, in fact, a tribute to the national flower of Belgium, held in Lochristi (six miles from Ghent). They say, 30 to 33 million flowering tubers grow each year on more than 400 acres. For the festival, residents create enormous three-dimensional floral installations for a parade of flower-decked floats. In addition, each year they depict a different theme. For example, the world’s favorite fairy tales. Colorful arrangements of millions of yellow, red, orange, and white blossoms on beds of sand turn the town’s main street into a carpet of flowered pictures.
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In Europe, birds of blue color are almost impossible to find, except for kingfisher and sifter. In fact, Bluebird lives high in the mountains in Tajikistan, in Hindustan, China, and some countries of Asia. And mostly, at an altitude of about 3000 m in the mountains. It has a strong and beautiful voice that can drown out the sound of a waterfall or a mountain stream. The blue bird builds the nest in an impregnable place in the rocks. Noteworthy, its blue plumage looks blue only in the sun’s rays, but turns black in the shade.
For some Germanic peoples, the blue bird has long been a symbol of happiness. “Chasing the Blue Bird” means to seek happiness. And it is clear how this symbol developed: in Europe there are really no blue birds, and to catch such a bird means great luch and a miracle.
Meanwhile, the image and term of the bird of happiness appeared in Western literature thanks to intelligent people. It still lives only in the language of educated people; if you say: “You’re chasing a blue bird,” – not everyone will understand you.
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It is the blue color that calls man to infinity, to depth, to purity and supersensible. For blue is associated with the color of the sky and the color of the water. The blue color also gives an unusual feeling of meditation, calmness and serious contemplation. It is not always the color of joy, more often of sadness, for the boundlessness of the sky, its unknowability give a feeling of sadness and anxiety.
The symbolism of blue comes from the obvious physical fact – the blue of the cloudless sky. In mythological consciousness, the sky has always been the abode of gods, spirits of ancestors, angels; hence the main symbol of blue is divinity. The conjugated meanings are mystery, mysticism, holiness, nobility and purity (spirituality), constancy (in faith, devotion and love), perfection, high origin (blue blood), justice (God’s work).
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Heron is an amazing long-legged bird. It typically can be found in ponds, marshes, and swamps. Herons feed while standing or walking in shallow water. They live nearly all over the world, except in Antarctica and arctic North America and Eurasia. There are about 60 species of heron. Several types are called egrets.
A heron is a tall bird with broad wings and a long neck. Its bill is long, straight, and pointed. These birds often have gray, brown, black, or white feathers.
Herons feed on fish, amphibians, snakes, small mammals, and other animals living in the shallow waters of wetlands. You know, herons stand in the water on one foot because the water is usually cold. Thus, they warm the feet one by one. It may stand on one leg motionless for several hours.
These birds typically build platform nests of sticks in trees, sometimes with many nests in a single, large tree. By the way, these birds are considered monogamous. But usually their relationship lasts for one season. As an exception, there are couples whose family life lasts two years or more.
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