"Creating this series, I tried, as far as it was possible, to retrace the journey of previous generations from generalizations, from the idea that form is a sign, from the hieroglyphics, symbols, allegories, and metaphors to the intellectual discoveries of modern art. And I still don't know where this journey begins and where it ends."

Vladimir Fomin

For Fomin, the closest expression of naive figurative thinking and the revelation of the true essence of objects was the jewelry of the Vepsa people from the 8th to the 12th centuries. The jewelry became a key to his lubok interpretation of the stories and images of the ancient Vepsa world. The artist's paintings are the first attempt to unite the two autonomous styles that existed in Vepsa metalwork. One of them can be called an "x-ray" style - when the inside of animals is shown with the help of openings in their bodies. The other can be called a "skeletal" style - which simply outlines the spine, ribs, and bones of the animal. Combining these styles together expanded the possibilities of Fomin's lubok style, which is characterized by brightness and harmony of color and meticulous execution. Thanks to the ability of painting to fill with color the empty spaces in the animal and bird figures and to replace the simple lines by ornament, on Fomin's canvasses the Vepsa idols seem to have recovered their flesh without losing their symbolic meaning.

The fragments of national Vepsa design patterns made by precise combinations of lines, crosses, and geometric shapes are used extensively in the paintings. From Vepsa jewelry and ceramics Fomin borrows the "wolf-tooth" pattern - a geometric figure resembling a stepped pyramid; from embroidery and wood and stone carving he borrows the details of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images and floral ornament. The artist also uses fragments of ribbon plaiting with schematic representations of fragments of animals, interwoven stylized animal masks with zigzagging lines, dots, "netting," and lattices. The ancient Vepsa people used all these Scandinavian ornamental devices as well as the wavy and straight parallel lines typical of the Slavs and Finns.

However, the series was inspired not only by ancient Vepsa art, but also by the inimitable Vepsa folklore, mythology, customs, rituals, and beliefs. One of the oldest surviving myths deals with the creation of the world. The Karelians, Udmurtians and Mordvinians believed that the world was created by a duck, the Mari -- by a drake, the Khanty - by the swan, and the Mansi - by the raven. The Vepsa, however, assigned the role of the world's Creator to a kind of hybrid creature - half bird and half animal. The image of an amazing bird-animal, even though it bears similarity to the monsters from Scandinavian ornaments, is characteristic of the jewelry and ceramics of the Vepsa. This amazing creature is depicted only in Fomin's graphic works.

According to a legend, long, long ago Water was everywhere. One day a huge mythological being appeared in the primordial ocean. The beak, the wings, and the tail of the creature made it akin to birds, everything else - to animals. The creature dove repeatedly and every time brought up in its beak a piece of earth. After a short rest, the bird-animal breathed out a piece of the sky and continued on its journey. In this manner the Earth and the Sky appeared in the middle of the Water. Where the creature's feathers and fur fell there birds and animals appeared, and from them came people. Later, Fomin transferred this image to his Kizhi series (The Tree of Life) and, after numerous metamorphoses, to the Kalevala series (The Miraculous Transformation).

In the 11th-12th century ceramics, wooden sculpture, and fabric decorations the image of the bird-animal is transformed into a more concrete one - it turns into a duck. And the myth about the creation of the world by a duck says that amidst the Eternal Waters the duck laid eggs, from which came the Sky, the Earth, and the Stars…

The representations of the "world tree" in the applied folk art also point to the partial interpenetration of various cultures. The myth of the "tree of life" describes the peak of the cosmic mountain topped by the "tree"-- the pivot and support of the Universe. Its roots hug the entire world, its branches support the sky, the clouds, and the stars, and its crown is the dwelling place of the divine being of the highest order. At different times, the latter was understood as a bird-animal, a two-headed griffin, a swan, or a duck.

In general, the image of the duck (represented by Fomin in the works with the same title) occupied a unique place in the art of the people. Not by accident, the Slavs, who called the Vepsa people Chud, gave the same name to their duck-shaped pendants and attachments shaped like duck's feet, popular in Karelia and beyond.

The cult of the chicken (Fomin's The Bird), in contrast to the duck, was quite utilitarian. The chicken, the only domesticated bird kept by the Vepsa, was a measurement of the prosperity of the household. Characteristically, no other bird - the duck (the most important object of the hunt), the goose, or the wild fowl - was ever used in ritual sacrifices during various celebrations. Apparently, the sacrifice of the personal and communal symbol of prosperity had the same meaning as the popular saying, "you must give to receive." For example, the ritual slaughtering of the bird, performed at the beginning of the hunting season, required a number of consecutive actions. They included the ritual sprinkling with water, incantations by the shaman, and the burning and burying of the bird's entrails in the earth. This way, the sacrificial part of the bird, which served as a ritual feast, was supposed to bring prosperity to the people, and the part returned to nature was to bring prosperity to the surrounding world. A custom which began and ended the yearly inspection of the flock before putting it out to pasture was the ceremony of taking eggs outside "to make the flock as round as eggs." Accordingly, images representing a row of chickens with magnificent rooster's tails are a traditional motif of Vepsa applied art.

Echoes of these ideas and artistic traditions of the ancient masters survive in Fomin's pictures. His Duck is an embodiment of the sky goddess or "beregynya," the messenger of the sky. The duck signifies eternity, a harmonious link with the cosmos, with everything that is alive on earth. In comparison with The Duck, the generalized image of the chicken in the painting The Bird is characterized by greater simplicity and earthly quality corresponding to its common nature. There are no cosmic colors here (violet, lilac, or dark blue) - instead, green, the color of nature, dominates. Understanding that the chicken was for the Vepsa the most important link to nature, the artist attempts to capture in The Bird the cyclical nature of life on earth, the natural chain of events.

Among the domesticated animals, another major object of veneration was the horse (Fomin's painting with the same title). The Vepsa jewelry of the early Middle Ages often features representations of A Woman Riding a Dragon. Originally, this female deity rode a forest animal - a deer or a moose - which was trampling a serpent. The scholars usually interpret this image as an image of the Great Mother - the mistress of the forest, animals, birds, and people. Later, the female deity turned into a protector of domesticated animals who, with the help of a horse, defeated the evil embodied by the serpent.

According to the Vepsa popular belief, "God breathed his own soul into a horse." Perhaps this explains the further transformation of the image of the female rider. The representation of the female deity disappears; only the horse - the power of good, and the serpent - the power of evil, remain in the composition.

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, the horse was the only object of veneration deserving the same honors during funeral rites as its owner. If the horse was sick, its illness was caused by a forest spirit crossing its path or by an evil spirit angered by the horse's owner. Taking care of the horse, unlike taking care of domesticated birds and livestock, was the responsibility of the man. "The horses' feast day" required a ritual bathing of horses and only men were permitted to ride them. The only time a woman could ride a horse was during a wedding ceremony, when a bride rode in front of all the participants in the festivities.

At the end of the Middle Ages, sacrificing a chicken, a horse, or a black cat was considered an effective way of combating the evil powers. Such sacrifices were most often made during livestock epidemics. The dead animals, together with the ritual victims, were taken to the crossroads, burned, and buried.

All these ancient beliefs helped the artist in his interpretation of the horse's image in the painting with the same name. However, The Horse is also based on two legends about the divine origins of the animal. One of the legends was popular among the northern Vepsa tribes that lived in Karelia along the southwest shore of Lake Onega, the other -- among the central Vepsa tribes living today in the northeast part of St. Petersburg region and in the northwest Vologda region. According to the first legend, the Sun, the Great Fire that warms everything alive, rests at night in a small boat or on a small raft tied to the legs of the Great Duck. While the Sun rests, the Duck swims along the Underworld river to a place where a Golden Horse is waiting. The Horse carries the Sun in a golden chariot into the heaven. The Horse makes a magical circle with his burden and returns it to the Duck. The second legend says that the soul of the horse of the first man ascended to heaven after its master's death. It turned into a rainbow, which always returns to take a drink from the lake. There is a direct parallel between this legend and the name given to the rainbow by the central Vepsa tribes. It can be literally translated as "God's horse."

Images of sheep (rams) are virtually absent from the early Vepsa art, even though the wool of the thick-coated local breed of sheep was commonly used as a material for making fabric. The cult of the sheep (ram) appeared much later than the other animal cults. Its appearance is connected with the ritual celebrations of the 19th and 20th century because the principal activities of these celebrations centered around collective feasts accompanied by slaughtering of sheep. These celebrations were considered obligatory; otherwise, "the livestock would be devoured by wolves and bears," and "the grain would dry out or get scorched in the fields." In some Vepsa villages such rituals are performed even today. The artist witnessed the ritual slaughtering of a ram and depicted it accordingly with a scarlet and crimson background to symbolize the animal's blood and life-giving powers.

Historical data prove that the ritual slaughtering of a ram or a bull (Fomin's painting The Bull) followed an earlier custom of sacrificing wild animals - moose or deer. This custom is confirmed by a legend about a sacrificial moose (in a variant - about two deer). A similar legend and a ritual connected with it exist in other Finno-Ugric nations. Fomin's The Hunters' Dream illustrates the version popular among the Vepsa people living on the river Oyat. The legend says that long, long ago, a pair of deer used to come every year to a ritual place. Every year, people would kill one deer and let the other one go free. But one day, the people got greedy and killed both deer, violating the hunting ritual of multiplication and resurrection of animals. From that time on, the deer stopped visiting the people. As a result, thereafter they had to sacrifice the domestic animals - a ram or, more rarely, a bull. But the dream about releasing one of the deer survived. The image of the deer embodied something very important, perhaps the idea of the irretrievably lost union with nature.

The task of creating a series of original paintings was made easier by the artist's familiarity with legends about spirit-protectors. Characteristically, in some Vepsa villages, which no longer exist, people derived their ancestry from a deer (Fomin's works The Deer and The Northern Deer). In two villages people derived their ancestry from the moose (Fomin's The Moose) and because of that they entirely forbade moose hunting. They believed that the animals chased away wolves and bears and thus protected the family. There was a saying "If you go bear hunting - make your bed ready, but if you go moose hunting - make boards for your coffin."

Later, other animals joined the ranks of spirits-protectors (Fomin's The Fox, The Hare, The Boar, and The Bear). In those cases the animals were not called by their proper names, but by their allegorical names. The fox was respected for its cunning and dexterity (Fomin's fiery, flexible fox on the background of a village), and the hare for its quickness. According to the Vepsa, the animals were named for the qualities often ascribed to people. Pieces of animal fur and hides were used as "amulets" brought to sanctuaries, as magical objects used by the shaman to perform his duties. They also symbolized man's way of life and for that reason they were placed in the grave of the deceased so he could continue the same kind of life in the other world. "To draw an animal is to draw a Man; animals are interesting for the same reasons as people," the artist seems to be saying to his viewers. The fur of the boar, like the sheep's wool, symbolizes life. The ancient people believed that fur had the ability to resurrect the dead. The hunters did not take with them any amulets connected with the boar and did not touch its meat because that would take away their ability to kill. Fomin's The Boar, in agreement with the ancient beliefs, is a representation of the most mysterious forces that could cause either harm or good.

The ancient Vepsa people particularly venerated the bear, calling him "the bighead" and "the master." It was the only animal which the Vepsa always hunted together, communally, using a spear, bow and arrows, and always at a particular time, only once or twice a year. In some villages bear's meat was not eaten even in "hungry" years. The animal was hunted for its hide, which, like the boar's hide, served as protection, decoration for the dwelling, clothing, or a unit of exchange. Significantly, everything related to the bear brought success to the hunter. Before leaving for the hunt, the men decorated the bear's hide with pieces of the fur of various animals and with decorative metal badges. To the hunt they always took amulets - a bear's ear, nail, or tooth. The bear mask was also a necessary component of the hunt, supposedly giving the hunter power over any prey. When the mothers took their children to the forest to collect berries, mushrooms, and roots, they believed that if a bear accidentally stumbled upon a child sleeping in a crib or separated from its mother and did not harm it, the child would in the future become a very special person - strong, self assured, and successful.

While the images of a fox and a hare appear in Vepsa applied art rarely, the images of a bear are quite common. A distinguishing feature of bear images is the principle of pairing. Realistic figures of bears standing on their hind legs and embracing each other with their paws can be found, for example, on flints and weapons. Generally speaking, such an image could be interpreted as opposition and unity of some supernatural forces and as actions on which depended the balance and order in the world, and the prosperity of each man. In the 12th century, when the Novgorodians began to colonize the North (later called the Russian North), such an image, by analogy with the Novgorodian coat of arms, the pagan tribes associated with the strength of their opponents' forces; the totemic indicator was "erased" by time.

Undoubtedly, Fomin's The Fox, The Boar, The Hare, and The Bear are reflections of the ancient images. Each represents a different story or legend, but all together - as a group -- form a unified whole with many common links. They inspired the artist to create, within the Vepsa series, a cycle entitled The Shaman's Dream. This cycle includes Hunters in a Boat, A Large Boat, The Dance of Love, A Woman Horse Rider, A Woman Deer Rider, The Northern Triptych, and others.

Thanks to the artist's talent, the ancient images interpreted in his contemporary paintings provide us with a key to understanding of the basic elements of the multifaceted and multifarious culture of the ancient Vepsa people. The Vepsa series does not only tell about the high points of an ancient civilization in the universal language of art, but it also gives us an opportunity to feel the pulsating life of the past in the present and in the future. The series clearly shows the mythological perception of the world, which, according to the author, characterizes to a great degree his contemporaries and the human kind in general.

Svetlana Gromova
Translated by Alexander Boguslawski
Edited by Kay Davidson-Bond