2024
Series "When the Sky Falls"
Acrylic, canvas, 196x156 сm
 
 
Artist's Statement
 
Dzharylhach Island is the largest island in Ukraine and the Black Sea in the Karkinitsky Bay. It is part of the Dzharylhach National Nature Park and is known for its rich history and natural beauty. The island had a rich flora and fauna, including deer, fallow deer, mouflons, wild boars, foxes, hares, and numerous species of migratory birds.
 
In the spring of 2023, Russian occupiers filled the crossing to the island with sand, connecting it to the occupied part of the Kherson region, and created a military training ground on it. In August 2023, a massive fire broke out on the island, destroying the entire nature reserve area of the park on more than 1,500 hectares and annihilating its unique ecosystem.
 
My painting is created in organic abstraction, with lines and shapes flowing across the canvas, conveying a sense of movement and the dynamics of nature. I painted the land of the island and the water as if looking at them from above, but the painting does not have clearly defined objects or figures, leaving room for your imagination and free associations. I left the bottom edge unfinished because I did not know the island's state and future due to the war.