AAURA ART Studio

It starts with intention and an old tabletop. To show World 🌎 to the World 🌎 Part 1. 073025 AAuRA

Before it became something else, it was already a whole world of light. ✨

24 × 30” portal
— AAURA Art

Before it became something else, it was already a whole world of light. ✨

24 x 30” portal
— AAURA Art

Last Sunday, on July 6th, I visited St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church in Houston to light a candle for my grandmother.

It was the 9th day after her passing — a sacred moment in Orthodox tradition.
In the first nine days, we believe the soul remains near, visiting loved ones and places it cherished.
On the 9th day, we pray for the angels to guide the soul through the spiritual realms.
The 40th day marks the final passage — when the soul is believed to stand before the Divine and enter its eternal home.

I hadn’t known it before arriving, but that Sunday’s liturgy was dedicated to the Meeting of the Icon of the Vladimir Mother of God
(Сретение иконы Владимирской Божией Матери) — the very icon from my homeland, Vladimir, Russia.
The name of the church, the icon, the timing… it all aligned in sacred synchronicity.

I lit a candle за упокой (for the repose of her soul), beneath the icon of Christ on the cross, asking for her light to be received and remembered.

Later that evening, when I got home, I lit another candle.
I must have drifted off, because I woke up to find the flame had caught the plastic holder and was rising.
Without thinking, instinctively, I reached out and used my fingers to put it out.
It burned me.

But the strange part is…
in that moment, it felt like my grandmother was holding my hand.
If it leaves scars, I’ll cherish them — a reminder of her touch, of a love that transcends this world. ✨

And in the church, I had looked up and noticed unfinished-looking angels on the dome ceiling.
They reminded me of an old church in the forests near Vladimir, where one of my ancestors worked after the revolution — a time when faith was forbidden.
They say he might be the one painted angels.
And somehow, I felt he was there too.

Lately, I’ve felt drawn to paint angels myself. And this experience — it will all become part of my work.
To carry her light forward — and dedicated to her.

🕯️
Вечная память. Eternal memory.

⸻

Guardian of the unseen ✨