So Here We are

Where?
Good question. We moved. It was a long a hard move, and after 6 years of staying in one place it was not easy to pack up and go. But as always moving was a cleansing experience, getting rid of things that need not be here and rethinking what is it that we are looking for in life.

Here we are. Still in NYC, but on an island now. Staten Island.  Not what we planned for , but happy to be here. Life is a mysterios thing and all the plans that we carried for so long and thought out so well came to meet reality, and reality made a way to show us what really needed to happen.

New things:
We are in a house (BIG plus NO NEIGHBOURS BELOW so we can play soccer in the living room. And we do)
We got a turtle and named her Gortenzia , the poor silly thing has no idea that she carries such a magnificent name

The house had a piano in it so now there are bits and pieces of music hanging about our daily life

As always the pictures are woth a thousand words, so here we go.

Spring

It is spring once again here in New York. My favorite time of year, my favorite smell in the air, my favorite color of the sky.
We have repainted our apartment anew and are ready to start selling it. I hope we will have a buyer soon and a new chapter in our lives will start. We are all talking of the country now, kids want to plant apple trees near our new house, I can't wait for a space that could be my studio with a big window and some greens outside to look at, and the cats are just anxious and anticipating some big change. It feels like it is time for a change, like this chapter of our life is coming to a conclusion and something different will take it's place.

More glimpses

May be it is more for me to remember, but I do want to remember these days. Travelling here is like recharging my battery of inspiration and creativity. I do not have time to draw or paint here with 3 kids running around. I try to show them as much as I can and try to make it fun and interesting. And if there was no rain it would be perfect, but it does rain much of the time. But NEVER THE LESS. it is wonderful! I think I will paint and paint and paint when I get back home.....shoes, tomatoes, river, dome, rain, umbrella, pigeons, dogs, trees, mermaids, narrow streets with lamps

My favorite Florence

My second love, after my home town Lviv is Florence. I am so happy to be here again!

Valentine

May this not happen to all of us years and years down the road together, of if it does may we find those special slippers

Favorite things and useful things

Life is very very very busy these days. I have not painted anything serious in 3-4 weeks...And I'm not happy with myself in this aspect. However I decided to make a list of things that I do and that I have learned. Just to keep myself positive and thinking in the right direction. It is hard to think all the time of the things that I DO NOT do. So here it goes, things that I DID not know how to do a year ago: I have learned to make and use ginger tea out of real ginger roots. Lime has become a regular item in our shopping bag. Spirulina and chlorella don't sound scary anymore. I have cooked several raw desserts and enjoyed them. I have added grape fruit seed oil and food grade peroxide to the kitchen cabinet. I have made several green juices and loved them. Ok, ok, ok...it sounds like it's all about food and health. Let's see if anything interesting happened somewhere else in my life. I know a lot more about robins, larks, mocking birds and starlings. Teaching a NYC nature class was a wonderful endeavor so far. I have discovered the "Little HOuse on the Prairie" series and our family has loved it so far. And last, but not least the Little Nicholas books have been thoroughly enjoyed by me and the kids. It's not much, but this is what I have.. Oh, and my favorite flowers are in bloom and sold at Trader Joe's:)

Looking for something

We are looking. Looking to find a new place to live. Our family of 5 plus two cats has outgrown our a

partment and the need for something greener has been haunting us for the past 5 years. So we started looking. I probably will miss the city terribly, the past 10 years I have lived here. I will miss my much loved friends. I will miss the teas together, and the sleepovers that our kids are always having, and the fact that one can just drop in on a friend every once in a while. I will miss PEOPLE . This city is full of wonderful people. But I will not miss the traffic, the horrible parking, the driving around your house with a crying baby in the back and hoping that may be , just maybe someone will pull out. I will not miss our neighbors from downstairs, who have made our life here very very stressful. I want my kids to be free in their home, play ,run and enjoy themselves not tiptoe around scared that the police might come to check what is going on. It will be a leap of faith, and I hope that it will all work out for the best, since I do not know what is right and how it should be done. I hope that there is a new home waiting somewhere for us and it is just the right place, and it will be ment to be, and I will know it from the look of it:) Dreaming, as always.

The lightness of being

Watercolor is so light. It is full of light. The more I work with it the more I feel that what I do is too heavy, less is needed. Less strokes, less effort, less information. It should be more free. I am attempting to do something slightly different in this series I am doing for Storybird. I will be painting a number of little gnome watercolors, posting them on Storybird for stories to be made and selling the originals on Etsy. I feel I have to do little simple things now. This post is mostly self reflection, it will take me some time to get used to proper blogging after such a long break. Please bear with me.

1 year ago

I had my little baby Ilya who is a walking and almost talking joyful little person as of today. He loves animals, books and tries to draw. He is in total awe of his older brother Andrei and makes us smile many many times every single day. Artwise, I have been doing some fun projects lately, lots of custom illustrations and one book collaboration project. I will post just a few highlights of the things happening around here lately and wishing you all the very very best in the New Year will send you all a big greeting and a cheer.