Morning
Oil on canvas, 1995

There is a serene quietness to Morning (1995) that doesn’t exist in the other Angel series, Day, Violin, and Evening.   There is a somewhat gloomy presence that the golden walls, floating in the depths of deep dim blue, give off while the young deity seems to be lost in a prayer.  There is a foggy appearance that is given off by the dim colors; the small hues of pink, orange, and yellow are seen through the dreary depths and appear only to give the correct sense of quietness. 

The interesting scene in this painting is that the actual human act of prayer is caught in the realms of the gods – where an angel is either willingly, or by the force of other philosophical convictions, is driven to such an act of human humbleness.   The halo is vivid on the angel’s head, and it seems to be electrified with volts energy that represents itself in wonderful colors of light-blue and white.   These volts, or zaps, of colorful energies are found throughout the work of Pogrebinsky, and we often see these kinds of lonely angels meditating in other works.   We see this energy in Angel Night (1995), which in itself is so independently abstract that it wouldn’t be fitting to classify it under the Angel series.    In Angel 2 (1995) and Angel (1995) the energy is presented in quick air-like motions of color.   In I Pray for You (1996) we see not a halo, but a circular movement of golden energy, in the very same depths of darkened colors.

Like Evening it is centered on the actions of a saintly being, and the focus is not entirely on the plain of their existence but on their very existence.   Spirituality is felt through this work just as it is through Evening, for we see the closeness between action, symbolism, light, and color.   There is also Angel Night, which was composed in 1995 as well, which is quiet different – and doesn’t offer a taste of mystery through the same kinds of means.   In the night, the world is much more different, emotions live under a different set of rules and so does spirituality – it is in the morning, though, that we awaken each day, and it is because of morning that we get to witness all the amazing colors of the day.