Mamuka Dideba, *Old Warrior*, 2018, oil on canvas, private collection

And now for something different. Some time ago I started writing (very) short stories inspired by art from the artists that I represent. This is one of them - inspired by the “Old Warrior” by Mamuka Dideba. It all started with something my mom said about the vulnerability of the warrior’s body compared to the roughness of his face. Bear with me as I’m just starting to explore this …

Andreas’ childhood was happy, completely undistinguished by any special marks and passed in peace and harmony. Born to loving parents in a small farming village of thatched roof huts, he was of humble background but experienced no lack.
The change came when the village was invaded. He remembers seeing his mother running, fires burning, mayhem everywhere as he stood transfixed. Something changed in him then. He can’t quite put his finger on it, but something changed. There grew an overlay on his soul, scarred on the inside, masking the childhood innocence, love and softness.
He never saw his parents again. Yet he was lucky. One of the invading warriors who saw his parents perish took him in, raising him the best way he knew how, teaching him to be a soldier. He would not have survived otherwise. Maybe this act of kindness nurtured the glimmer of softness in Andreas’ soul that survives there still. Perhaps, despite so many battles, that is why he still has it, very deep beneath the layers of blood and gore, of lives lost and not known.
He never started a family. Never had any use for it. Why start something that can so easily and painfully be lost?
Was he a good warrior? He thinks so, yes. He never took a life he didn’t need to take. Did he lose himself in battle? Perhaps a little, survival extracts a price.
Now he stands here before you as he is. Judge him or not, he is past caring.

Mamuka Dideba (Georgian, b. 1968) is a master of figurative and abstract. He paints in the old masters’ imprimatura technique which requires enormous patience and skill and gives his works an inner glow. His works, biography and more are here: https://www.katrinelevin.com/artistpage-mamuka-dideba