thatiswhytheywilldestroyus

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I've worked on a book about russian folk epics in January and it's finally out. One of the biggest number of illustrations I've ever done in one project.

Solovei (Nightingale) the bandit — a killer with a deathly whistle that came through many transformations with time. The classic chthonic antagonist, he had various snake and monster features, which soon made way for traits of the Turkic people (aka the usual threat to Rus). In XVII, however, he can already be seen depicted in Polish clothing! A fun titbit on how the image of an antagonist can evolve with time and geopolitical changes)

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The ray of blazing, scorching, devouring sunshine. Twitter | VK | Leave a tip

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Yeehan as ‘Romantic Encounter’ by Mihály Von Zichy 🪽

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"In languid dreams a vision came, of new heaven, new Earth. I breathed life into its custodian. A subtle sprite, to seed life. Yet as I reached for my savage warden, she… slipped from me. So now… …I cast her in flesh. Yours. Let her be real. Incandescent. This fugitive form. This… Wisp."

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Adonis, tr. by Khaled Mattawa, Selected Poems

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Ajayibul-Buldan, Wonders of the World; Sheikh Adhary

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Arghavan Khosravi — Eye Witness (acrylic paint, canvas and velvet textile, mounted on shaped wood panels, 2020)

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"The colors' silence whisper

The wool' s palpitation of blood through the knot´vessels

And the fingers' sweet souls which are trampled"

- from Ahmad Shamlu´s "To the Scarlet Blossom of a Dress"

The Knot series (2011) by Jalal Sepehr (جلال سپهر) is comprised of 13 images taken in the historic city of Yazd. In this series, Sepehr has striven to depict a place in his pictures in between traditional and everyday life.

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relief of lion attacking a bull | c. 550-330 BCE | achaemenid, present-day iran

in the university of Chicago institute for the study of ancient cultures’ collection

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Renée Sintenis (1888 - 1965) - Autoportrait, 1933

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For what should such an inky soul as mine do in the jasper halls of Heaven?

— Ray Russell, Sanguinarius

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Decorative pages taken from 'Anthology of Persian Poetry' (17th century) by Hafiz, Luthfi, Hilali, Mu’in, Asir.

Image and text information courtesy The Met.

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Etel Adnan, from a letter featured in "Of Cities and of Women: Letters to Fawwaz," originally published in 1993

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"I watched life and wanted to be a part of it but found it painfully difficult."

— Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 6: 1955-1966

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I bit Jesus's hands and he cursed me like that one fig tree.

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Emily Dickinson, from a letter to Otis P. Lord, featured in The Letters of Emily Dickinson