We all come from childhood, and this fact keeps me drawing again and again what I experienced myself and what left a mark on my soul. I have been very lucky in life: I was born to a family where family ties were highly valued, where the elders were revered and all family members treated each other with great respect. It is important for children, just like adults, to know the truth about themselves.

Nino Chakvetadze

Nino Chakvetadze was born in Tbilisi in 1971. From 1986 to 1990 she studied at an institute of arts, and from 1990 to 1996 at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts in the department of painting. She has been a member of the National Creative Unity of Georgian Artists since 1997. Nino lives and creates in her hometown.

The universe of childhood

«A child’s life is not paradise but a drama»

J. Korczak

Timidly and with curiosity a tiny human looks out from a half open door. (+) Who’s out there?… What’s out there?… The world outside the familiar home is alien, confusing, immeasurably huge, maybe even hostile. A dark hole. The door shuts. It pushes him out and the small child finds himself outside, in a whirlpool of…no, not people but of scurrying, running legs. (+) He is so small that, lifting his face, he cannot discern the faces above… And the grown ups don’t see him, don’t hear him. They do to not give thought to such a small thing. To such small things. They are in too much of a hurry to reach out …

Thats why there are no adults in the creative universe of Nino Chakvetadze. (The old folk do not count. They are also children). The artist relates the autonomy of childhood. Its clumsy helplessness, naivety, fragility. Its purity and sanctity. She relates the loneliness of childhood.

Children, Nino’s heroes are an unequivocal part of that divine world which “was good” (Gen. 1.4). And its most spiritual part. The life-giving, maternal property of Nature attracts them like the comfort and affection they desperately need. They are equally at ease under the stars of a dark night (+) (“Night is a black umbrella under the stars”, in the words of an eight-year-old girl), and in fluffy dandelions on a bright day (+). The world that “was good” was conceived by God as a heavenly habitat for happy people. But in the work of Nino Chakvetadze it is the children who most often experience the heavenly bliss of this world and maybe even know about it through the spiritual knowledge of an infant. The immense surroundings draw in and enchant with friendliness and beauty. They live and act effortlessly, playfully and enthusiastically in the heart of Nature. Like in the backyard sandbox – freely and fearlessly. Her maternal, heavenly properties inspire and liberate. Encourage creativity. A small child puts on a concert (+) outside in the open. He is accompanied by the sun and the flowers. It is to them, and his puppy friend, he can perform, them he can entrust with his music. To open his soul.

“You are my Angel,” exhales, whispers some mother to her baby full of boundless love and tenderness. Tenderness, admiration and sympathy drive the artist’s brush.

To her children are creatures akin to angels both within and on the outside, and the wings that some of them have are just a small, optional touch leading to this conclusion.

The children of Nino Chakvetadze are the manifestation of the angelic rank on Earth. The spiritual world of the Kingdom of God is open to them as they are still innocent. And the heavenly angels, like butterflies to nectar, fly down, descent to them. But in all their mildness, inspiration, concentration, under a bright angelic veil, they are still often mysteriously melancholic. They have not yet experienced the burden of human passion, they are unaware of adult reflexes, but they lack the carelessly flowing, bubbling, ebullient joy and serenity. Their rich inner life, almost introversion, slows them down and their movement becomes static, almost meditative.

Questions, doubts, expectations are visible in the huge lakes of children’s’ eyes. (+)

One can of course:

climb onto a branch, under the warm wing of an owlet (+);

build a snowman with an angel (+);

sail a boat with a friend under a sky of scattered stars (+);

enjoy the company of a teddy bear (+);

spin, with dreams of becoming a ballerina (+)…

Is this not happiness?

But… on the other hand,

it is sad that the long-awaited Christmas has passed (+);

sad if I’m not allowed to bring home a homeless kitten (+);

it is scary if the one for whom I got this bouquet doesn’t come (+)

“Aimlessly wanders the homeless sentiment — a Cinderella. And it is precisely the children who are the princes of feeling, the poets and thinkers. Respect, if not humility, before the white, translucent, immaculate, holy childhood.” (J. Korzcak)

A girl stands on the shore… (+) A blue dress. A wreath on her head. Sea. Surf. Seagulls. The artist calls us to empathy with her restrained artistic methods. To understand, to immerse ourselves in the state of mind of a child. A slight disruption of

symmetry, a shift to the right suggests: before the inner gaze of the girl – an image of the future, the sea of life, which she has to cross. And she instinctively trusts with all her being, knowing this.

Over a tiny basket with a newborn, an old couple clasp their hands with touching tenderness. (+) The sacred gift of Life. It is persistently explored by the painter Nino Chakvetadze.

Aimlessly wanders the homeless sentiment — a Cinderella. And it is precisely the children who are the princes of feeling, the poets and thinkers. Respect, if not humility, before the white, translucent, immaculate, holy childhood

J. Korzcak