"He can’t say exactly when they became angels. It happened naturally, over time, as he worked his brush across canvas after canvas, telling the stories his art compelled him to tell. Stories told through the language of color and pattern and shape. Some of the people he painted began to lift toward the sky, wings emerged, and he understood that they were there to deliver messages.
Specifically, they were messengers of change, heralding times when our lives and our world would shift and become something new.
Dramatic change is something Slava Roubanov understands on a very personal level. In many ways, his entire life has been a study in adapting to change. Change in place, change in culture, change in the spirit of the time. Born in 1948, he grew up in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the height of the Cold War. He discovered art and music the way students all around the world do – late at night, at parties, shared by friends. Much of Western art, music, and culture could only be found underground at the time in the USSR. It was not officially available, but artists and students found a way to discover it just the same."