What does it mean to be a modern artist in modern world?

What is Art today? Is it business, show, or some thing else perhaps?
I know many artists who successful in business, but they are not talented artists. And I know many really talented artists who live in utter misery, but they make real art.
In my mind art loses its initial meaning to be a guide to the world of harmony and beauty.
Why an artist can not be a just artist?

"It's misty" by Olga Romanova

A new heaven

"A boy with Torah" by Olga Romanova

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first  heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea exists  no more.   And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of  the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her  husband. And I heard a loud voice out of the heaven, saying, Behold,  the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall tabernacle  with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall  be with them, their God. And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and  death shall not exist any more, nor grief, nor cry, nor  distress shall exist any more, for the former things have  passed away…”

Culture and humanity

 "The flowers" by Valentin Massov

The term "culture," originally meant the cultivation of the soul or mind, and it was the true meaning of this word. Now, we lost it. What is more,  we lost the consept of the soul. A modern man lives without the soul. He lives like an animal, in a one day. Loss of culture will be mean loss of the human race, because culture is that distinguish us from the beasts. If we don't remember about our soul, we will lose our civilization.

Artist, culture and responsibility

Тhе meaning of art is to help a person to be more perfect. So, Art has to be responsible for future of humanity. "Like a stone thrown into the sea, has an effect on all the sea, so every person has an effect on all mankind," Blaise Pascal said.  I would say:"So every artist has an effect on all mankind." An artist can and create and destroy.  What he will choose, it will depend on him. And his choose will become his fate.

"Paradise Lost" by Olga Romanova

Art as a means of communication

A human is a social "animals". His life impossible without his own kind.
A human has speech for communication and intellect to speak right words. But how do express what impossible to express with words?
Art is the great gift of God, which can give possible to express everything.

 "Expression" by Olga Romanova

Anamnesis

"Anamnesis" by Olga Romanova

I like Socrates' theory of anamnesis. Socrates suggests that the soul is immortal, and repeatedly incarnated; knowledge is actually in the soul from eternity, but each time the soul is incarnated its knowledge is forgotten in the shock of birth. What one perceives to be learning, then, is actually the recovery of what one has forgotten. Once it has been brought back it is true belief, to be turned into genuine knowledge by understanding.

Mountains of Kyrgyzstan

"Mountains of Kyrgyzstan" by Valentin Massov

"The mountain peaks" by Valentin Massov

"A frosty morning" by Valentin Massov

"Issyk Kul Lake" by Valentin Massov

Valentin Massov took a trip across Kyrgystan in 1970. It was a very interesting journey. Kyrgyzstan is the fantastic country. Valentin Massov have got the revelation on the Lake Sary-Chelek. But it is his secret.

My art is my life

"The Deer-Golden Horn" by Olga Romanova

I feel better when I work. Art is the world where I can live to the fullest. I am happy only there.
"Art is an effort to create, beside the real world, a more human world." Maurois

Supper with Picasso

 "Supper with Picasso" by Olga Romanova

“Everyone wants to understand art. Why don’t we try to understand the song of a bird? Why do we love the night, the flowers, everything around us, without trying to understand them? But in the case of a painting, people think they have to understand. If only they would realize above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only an insignificant part of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world though we can’t explain them; people who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.” Picasso

Magic of the human soul

"Frenchwoman" by Olga Romanova

Every human is the unique creation of God. I would say the every human is the universe in the boundless space.
I think an artist have to try to reproduce inward life of human. Try, or else why do you take a brush in your hand? I am against blind imitation of nature. A camera can make the same. The artist have to see more than the camera, or else he is not the artist.

Beauty of Nature

Nature is so beautiful that an artist does not have to invent anything. Just he has to follow it.  Come and see! Nature will show all itself. Because nature is the best teacher.

"Evening" by Valentin Massov

"The still life" by Valentin Massov

Nature contains too much. None of an artist can not create more. The artist can only approximate to nature. Because nature is God's creation. Few can say:"I have cognized nature in full measure." I know the artist who was able to approximate to the truth. His name is Valentin Massov. "Light is the essence of life," he said. And he was able to prove it in his works.

"Flowers" by Valentin Massov

 

Art about

What is art for me? Art is the way of knowledge of everything. Art can create, art can destroy. Art can exalt of soul of human, art can trample on human dignity. An artist must carry the responsibility before God and humanity, I think.

"God's Words"  by Olga Romanova