Boris Chetkov: Across All Barriers

The late afternoon light somehow made its way through the small, grimy window in Boris Chetkov's studio. Chetkov was twirling his finger through his long, grayish white beard as he described the explosion of colors on the canvas in front of us. "It's the ascent of the Gods to the top of Olympus" he said, as if it were obvious to anyone. We set the next canvas on the paint-encrusted easel as he commented, "this one is called Flying Shadows." To better comprehend, I set down my cup of tea and stepped back away from the work as far as I could-which was only a few feet in this cluttered studio.

As we continued through a succession of works, I realized that I was sitting with an artist who was completely immersed in his imaginary world - a world where visions and fantasies flowed effortlessly in an unending stream of visual drama. I had entered a realm where beautiful, bold colors were applied with great emotion to the canvas. In harmonious tones the colors were talking to each other, working out their conflicts, their passions, their desires. Hundreds of paintings were stacked all around me and no two were alike. I had never seen anything like it. It was abundantly clear that Chetkov had no boundaries. He would go wherever his mood would take him-landscapes, still life, portraits, abstract compositions-all different, but all notably from the same masterful hand.

Kenneth Pushkin
The Pushkin Group, Santa Fe, New Mexico