Support Ukrainian Artist – Olena Ukraintseva from the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine

Support Ukrainian Artist – Olena Ukraintseva from the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine

“When There is Rain, Make Sure to Collect Water”

While her husband continues to fight on the front lines — artist, Olena Ukraintseva created an exhibition about her experiences in the besieged Mariupol. “Usually I paint with oil paints, but these works are made with acrylic, because for me acrylic is a dead material that has no life. When we were in the city, I had exactly the feeling that I was somewhere in some flat world. Because everything around has lost its color, as if in some other reality,” the artist explains.

“There was a war. I tried to draw. I understood that I was living in a very critical moment and wanted to fix it, but it didn’t work out. And drawing in the absence of everything – light, water, heat – is not at all a pleasure. Then I began to record, write down thoughts and phrases that characterize our life, but paradoxical, impossible in a different, peaceful reality. One of these phrases is “It will rain – collect water.” I left it to my son when I was about to leave home to visit my parents. On that day, the bombing was not so close and it was possible to run out. Water was needed for drinking, to wash your hands, and to do dishes… the water that falls from the sky is just a gift, you don’t have to follow it with buckets or flasks, listening from where and where the shells are flying. A picture was born from a phrase. It should have been first.”

20 x 27 inches