“Lovers of the city” (80 x 80cm) is Svyatoslav Ryabkin’s beautiful painting. In 2016 it was painted and it celebrates love. The artist has claimed that who is in love is always in flight and in paradise, even if he lives in a poor house and has got a tractor instead of a car.


Already in 2011 he painted two sweethearts hugged on the branch of a tree in the moonlight. This romantic picture is called “Moonlight”. So, the suspended-in-the-air love is a recurring theme.


In fact, in “Lovers of the city” the usual female figure is seated on her beloved’s knees. He seems comfortable, they are over a stool on a raft with big logs. They float in the sky defying the gravity force. Great! This represents their inner lightness: you can perceive their love looking at their embrace. But the structure is surreal: the raft is supported by a thin frame of iron that joins in a central pivot and develops a wheel that reminds me of a balloon. If you look better, this is a wheel of a windmill and it is impossible to turn. It is curious : Ryabkin has a scientific background because he studied Technical Education at Electronic Radio University in Kharkov in the former Soviet Union.


At first glance I had seen a balloon and it remembered me a fair on this theme in Padua (Italy) few years ago but I stayed on the ground. Don't worry, dear Readers, mark on your agenda: “September 2018 the Balloons Festival” in Ferrara (Italy). We cannot miss one of the most prestigious balloon festivals in Europe. Fun is guaranteed all day long until the suggestive night spectacle in which hot air balloons are lit up to the rhythm of the music!


There is also a more serious event for tourists and school: “the Balloon de Paris”. This balloon-laboratory flies over Paris and studies the degree of air pollution. That's interesting!


And if it was the wheel of the life? It reminds me of the "circle of the life" whose days make up a little miracle. Ryabkin has painted its steps well in evidence. They are the most significant milestones. Along the line of the circle that goes slowly, two lovers climb these steps together feeling stable in their true love despite the feeling of precariousness around them.


Two lovers are carried in the Avio blue sky stretched evenly on the canvas between large white shaded clouds. I really like this expanse of equal houses with red roofs and blue windows. They rise between roads that also look like the sky as if they lived in a mirrored city. The artist Ryabkin does not highlight what is their home but according to me two lovers have just gone to live in one of these. A dear friend of mine and Ryabkin has confirmed that when you start living with your loved you feel great happiness and euphoria because you start a new life together. Living together is an important step in which people test each other and could feel doubts about not being able to face the daily challenges. Every day together is precious because she discovers the countless aspects of his character and tests their real degree of affinity. Look up at the horizon: lots of orthodox churches represent their dream of getting married! Only dreams spin the wheel of the life, never forget it!


Two lovers on this poor raft have everything they need that is: nothing! You have read and seen right, them have got only a hookah and a cat.


The hookahs are Arab water pipes spread all over the world. They are very appreciated by the Russian people in particular among the very young people who love smoking in public places like bars and restaurants. Do you know Hookah Place, dear Readers? It is the famous Russian chain born in 2013 in Moscow and then spread in Los Angeles and arrived in Italy (in Trieste, 2018). The Middle Eastern style and the soft lights favour a relaxing atmosphere where you can smoke a hookah, sip tea and infusions on comfortable sofas. If you want exaggerate ask to replace the water used by the filter with vodka or wine!


It is always important to remember that smoke is mortal. Do you know that hookah smoke is hundred times more damaging than cigarette smoke? It is due to the higher concentration of carbon monoxide. Moreover, cigarette smoke affects mainly the terminal respiratory tract (bronchioles and alveoli) while the hookah smoke on the large respiratory tract (larynx, trachea and bronchi) and accelerates lung ageing. And smoking in groups promotes the spread of infections such as tuberculosis, herpes and hepatitis. Every year in Russia one and a half million deaths are caused by smoking. We hope that there will soon be a law that completely forbad hookahs and electronic cigarettes smoking in public places and the purchase by minors.

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In “Lovers of the city” there are two cats. One cat is on the raft and the other one is over a roof in the lower right in the canvas. They represent the quintessential pet that lives with us forever. Dear Readers who has got a cat, do you think they are able to perceive our moods? Yes, if they see us happy they try to cuddle and purr while, if we are sad and nervous they turn away, right? Often the artist chooses this loved animal in his pictures, as in “Girl playing with her cat” in which a big cat plays with a young girl.


Do you want to see "Lovers of the city" live? Currently it is at the salon hairdresser man-woman and aesthetics “Lui e lei” in Mogliano Veneto (Treviso, Italy).