THE GIRL WITH A PEACH

This canvas is an allusion to a well-known painting 'The girl with peaches’ and a deep obeisance to show respect for its creator Valentin Alexandrovich Serov, famous for his skills in portraiture and his eye for light and color, who with his art asserted ideals of cheerful existence, radiant happiness, youth, and beauty.
No wonder that in these both pictures the peach is available as a symbol for having a long life, exuberant physical strength, mental vigour, and vitality…
In the first case, the painting portrays eleven-year old Vera Mamontova, in the second – V… Varvara (already Nikolayevna) Sjölander-Gogulan… And for her the symbol of a long life is also not just an empty phrase… Since ‘to have a long life’ is her profession (she is a neuro-scientist, psychologist, and nutritionist), ‘vitality‘ (she has a bachelor degree in the liberal arts) is her hobby! Definitely, we know that the cobbler's children have no shoes.., but at the same time, we are so eager to believe that in the New Time according to the New Laws and Rules, the cobbler’s children will have shoes; moreover, they will wear premium customer tailor made shoes! And Varvara will verify and confirm her knowledge of life with her everyday practice…

The story of its creation is not less captivating than the history of its step twin… The picture was being painted not for two months, but for (God knows!) how many years… At first, the interior got its shape - a stairway upwards (the symbol for high aspirations), later the girl herself peered in a decent armchair (decency is the trademark of her aristocratic genes!)…, who like Pushkin’s Tatyana ("(heart and soul true Russian, without knowing why) with all her heart adored cold Russian winters, so matching her cold charms")… When she was living and studying in Holland, America, and Sweden (where, in addition to her ‘black and rude humor’, curious and inquisitive mind, well-developed sense of fairness, and kind heart, she acquired a profound and systematic education, wisdom, and the knack to achieve aims)… she always loved her native land…

Varvara also ‘easily believed in dream interpretations, and simple people superstitions since the olden days; in telling fortunes by the cards, and seeing visions, exactly stated by the lunar phase’.., and therefore effortlessly created the image of her ‘betrothed’, thus making her dream well on its way to becoming reality… Who should be ‘handsome as Brad Pitt; educated, talented, elegant, and of high standing as George Michael; wise, trustworthy, kind-hearted, and determined as Charlie Sheen; audacious, fierce, reserved, and sexy as Dolph Lundgren!’
According to the homemade extrasensory fairy predicting, he should have been ‘connected with oil or/and with banking’… And exactly it happened! He happened to have the same last name as one of the oil tycoons; and the same first name as the patron saint for bankers, accountants, and financial professionals in general! Oh, if only supersensitive people could not only see and feel, but also understand what they are seeing and feeling… - In this case, our life would stop being a fairytale, i.e. mysterious and fascinating adventure, and would turn into Megillah, i. e. something long, complex, and possibly tedious!
The butterfly… They met each other absolutely romantically… in a striptease bar, where an intellectual with two university degrees was erotically dancing at the pole (thus she was earning money to support her parents, who, by the way, also had prestigious degrees and titles… after the collapse of the Soviet Union), and a royal gardener’s grandson was celebrating his birthday…

Afterwards two playful angels appeared… (People marry not to crack nuts!) Outwardly, they are very much alike, but inside… - not worlds, but galaxies apart!

But what is really important, that they are a close-knit family, knit together under love! Therefore, there is the urge to end this essay with a wish… reflected in the words from their family hymn – song by a ‘Russian’ American Moby: "Feel this way forever!"