I’M AN ARTIST WHO FLED UKRAINE. MY PAINTINGS HAVE NEW MEANING.
It’s definitely been a tough year for those of us from Ukraine. Many of us have changed forever, but I know with every struggle, we get stronger and more resilient. This year taught me to dream, no, not to build pink castles, but to build a strong foundation for the future. When my daughter Vasy and I left Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, in early March to escape the war, we left my mother, my father, a sick grandmother and my husband (an aircraft mechanic in a military facility) at home.
We’re living in Kensington now, and I’m afraid for my family in Ukraine every day. We didn’t leave at first because we didn’t believe war was possible in the 21st century.
After a week living in a bunker in Zaporizhzhia, I realized that it was hard to keep my sanity, and I needed to be strong for my daughter. When we ran away, we did not know where to run or where we would be tomorrow. We felt such fear that it no longer mattered where; the main thing was not to be under Russia’s bombs. We thought we would only be gone for two weeks when we got on the evacuation train and that we would return to work in our garden. But the war didn’t end. This was not a vacation trip. It was a horror that I’m afraid to feel again.
We had to turn off the phone, internet and lights on the train, with 18 people in a compartment meant for four people. After more than a day in a dark crowded train under flashes of bombs, we arrived in Lviv, a city near the border with Poland. A volunteer helped us get to the border, about 5 miles on foot in severe frost, with Vasy, only 8 years old, and a small bag. With help from local law enforcement and the artist community, we found a camp in Rakszawa, a village in southeastern Poland. We lived there for two weeks and then moved to Warsaw with a Polish American family. Both the Wozniak family and the American School of Warsaw helped us a lot. I am an artist, and in five months in Poland, I created over 100 paintings. We traveled to San Diego because sponsors invited us. But a month later, they decided to withdraw their sponsorship. For me, it is still a mystery why. Tierrasanta Elementary School helped us with shelter in a hotel for a few days, and Nova Ukraine volunteers helped us find a very kind and creative woman, Connie Terwilliger, a San Diego voice talent, writer and theater actor who is helping us now and letting us live in her home. Without Connie, I don’t know where we would be today. She knows that painting is like air for me and encourages me in my craft.
Before the war, I had started an ambitious project to paint 1,000 sunflowers because sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine. This will take many years to complete, of course. But as of today, I have completed more than 140. All speak to history. Before the war, my sunflowers had a different meaning. Now they have my fight to win. Twenty-six of these pieces remain in Ukraine with 200 more empty canvases — unpainted bloody war paintings, unplanted sunflowers and all of my life.
In all my work with sunflowers, I kept my pain in shackles and tried to recreate only the world. At the same time, I felt the energy of life radiating and giving the strength that is very necessary for our victory. The American period of creativity started on the Independence Day of Ukraine, Aug. 24. I don’t know how far I can go, but I believe that this period will be a landmark for me. This journey will lead me to something important because there are only two options: succeed or fail.
I want to thank every single person who has supported me this year because I know now that no work is created alone. Today we all write our story together, building a strong foundation for our future! But in order for it all to make sense and plant sunflowers on our land next year, we need victory. Therefore, we wish health, strength and good luck to our defenders! I want to return home to my family — to be together at the same table in our garden and enjoy the taste of ripe cherries, which my daughter and my dad planted three years ago.
I recently finished a commission for the Mission San Diego de Alcalá for a fundraiser and this Sunday, Feb. 26, my paintings will be in exhibit during an open house event event in Kensington. Through April 2, my paintings will be part of the “HeART and Soul of Ukraine” exhibit at Villa Montezuma Museum in Sherman Heights joining four other Ukrainian artists. And I am creating a painting to promote an original play that will be staged at The Lamplighters Community Theatre in La Mesa in June. Visit bit.ly/3X6Nekr for a complete look at my work since arriving in the U.S.
When we ran away, we did not know where we would be tomorrow. The main thing was not to be under Russia’s bombs.