Gary Bukovnik’s La Vie en Rose

There is a line in Russian poetry (melancholic by default) about the doomed life of those refined souls who are gifted with a keen understanding of all things beautiful. (There is another one, though, stating that “beautiful” is not beauty, if you catch the poet’s drift). Anyway, those rare souls are referred to as the ones approaching extinction, with no hope to survive the brutalities of modern times (and those modern times are always the same—brutal). In the upcoming archeological era, when the trace of us will be erased forever, and those who knew about us will be far and few between, I wish Gary Bukovnik’s watercolors would be somehow excavated and preserved for a future kindred soul that must appear even in a hopeless desert of futuristic grim. A San Francisco resident of some 30 years, and a watercolor artist of exquisite mastery, Bukovnik chose his primary subject matter as cut flowers. Still with their strings attached, they demurely pose in their glass vases, or perform acrobatic numbers all over the mostly pure white backdrop, or fly away from their confinement, or just break down their pots and run free. Extremely realistic, yet dreamy and glorified, those endless bouquets and heaps of colorful blooms convey a feeling of life immersed in sheer beauty, awashed in brilliant droplets of morning dew, only sometimes interrupted by a playful painted animal who escaped from its porcelain vase home (see Tigers On The Run). Bukovnik, who shares his (can’t escape this word) beautifully decorated studio with his two gray tabbies--Chloe and Felix—obviously discovered the sacred connection between cats and flowers, known to any crazy cat lady in the world. In his everyday, the artist is a neat man, always dressed in colors, unlike most San Francisco dwellers, mainly clad in black. He is also a very friendly one, always pleasant, always a joy to communicate with, and a gourmet cook to boot. Am I feeling lucky to know this person, who dared to choose the art of beauty in this age of grime, and to stick to his ideals? You bet I am. His solo shows span the globe, and plenty of information is available at the artist’s website: www.garybukovnik.com or in Hudson Hills Press book, “Gary Bukovnik Watercolors.”