It is March and I haven't had time to paint much this year. I spent a lot of time pulling up carpet, preparing and painting the floors downstairs. It was necessary and is much easier to clean with all the animals. Except for that, I got a job: I did a lot of translations English-French and vice versa. I needed to immerse myself into French to be able to do good work and that took quite some time. I am also helping my cousin with the stories he wrote about our family and then I translate Russian into English. I am impressed with how much he has discovered. It is like I am given a chance to become closely acquainted with my own family: I am learning the stories of people whose names and faces only were familiar or sometimes not even that. I started corresponding with 2 female 3rd cousins in Moscow. Who would have thought that possible when I was growing up?
Aunt Katya's Icon fits in with all I am doing. She lived part of her life in France. She was one of the reasons I wanted to learn Russian and in a way she symbolizes my Russian relatives; because of a disagreement in the family, I didn't get to know her till just before we left for the States and I never got to ask her all the questions I had. She gave me the model for the icon in the picture. It had struck me that she had the exact same icon my mother had. In both cases it was just a picture from an icon calendar, but coincidences are important. (Hers had been glued to wood and made into an icon by a friend.) Also her way of giving it to me was exactly like my mother. Aunt Katya loved roses, so I need to paint one with roses next...
The lilies were a present to myself on the day that Gerald went to high school. I knew no one would think about giving me flowers because my homeschooling days were over, so I bought myself 3 bunches. The lilies I painted right away, but then the painting was lagging and I finished it only recently.
