Feeling Stabby?

Ukrainian Trees of Life

Not too long ago, I went to an art exhibit at the Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts concerning an important recurring symbol in traditional Ukrainian folk culture -- the Tree of Life. The exhibit featured the beautiful watercolour art of Larisa Sembaliuk Cheladyn, a prominent Edmonton artist, curator, instructor and academic expert in the field of Ukrainian Ethnography at the University of Alberta.

The Tree of Life motif symbolizes life, strength, and the interconnectedness of heaven and earth. It appears in paintings, embroidery, mosaics, pysanky (Easter eggs), and wedding items. Homes often display a Tree of Life to bring good health and prosperity.

The Tree of Life motif is usually depicted as a vertical stem symmetrically balanced with birds, flowers, and/or cranberries on either side. The choice of specific birds and flowers is often symbolic as well. Cranberries (kalyna) represent longing and healing related to the unquiet dead (often soldiers killed in battle).

These photographs show my most favourite pieces from the exhibit. Please pardon the reflections of myself and the overhead lights in the frames' glass. If you'd like to see the other art from this exhibit, check out the artist's website here.

This final image is a practice piece detail for a larger work. Isn't it utterly charming!

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This post is also being linked to

Sunday in the Art Room HERE

Wishing You All The Best!

Some Not-So-Serious Music

And speaking of Bach . . . .

Well, someone's putting on the dog!

And this bunch is putting on the cat!

Here's a handy cheat sheet for identifying composers . . . .

Let's end with some Mozart . . . .

I recently watched the new series remake of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus. To be blunt, it cannot hold a candle to the 1984 film made by Miloš Forman. To the piecemeal extent that the remake's screenplay still uses Peter Shaffer's original script, it attains some depth. But the additional dialogue and scenes inserted into the screenplay to make it more "hip, contemporary and relatable to today's audience" are appallingly superficial and jarringly out of place. Ordinarily, I quite like Paul Bettany (Salieri) as an actor who is capable of great subtlety and depth of portrayal. While he did bring some excellent heart and soul to the climactic moments from the original script, he was otherwise completely wasted here.

Can only give this series 2 out of 5 stars, unfortunately.

For All You Writers Out There

*SIGH* . . . The Latest Insanity