This is my self portrait to pay tribute to the Ukraine I love.
I’ve grown up in a family living with my maternal grandfather, descendant of Russian nobility from Odessa. As during October revolution bolsheviks killed his family he managed to escape, leaving his childhood, home and Russia forever to settle in Belgrade, just to witness the second revolution of his lifetime with partisans changing his new homeland into communist’s country Yugoslavia and to become a Russian aristocracy refugee forever.
I owe my Russian grandpa my great love for Russian and Ukrainian culture. I’ve grown up with Ukrainian and Russian fairy tales, subscription to satirical Russian magazine Krokodil, War and peace being my first novel I read and Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita my favorite book ever.
Then, 30 years ago, already with my own family and a small kid, I witnessed the Slovenian war for independence. It was not a long war, but nothing can explain the absolute scare a mother feels hearing sirens for air attack, nothing can explain the absolute horror of the war in any possible form. Therefore my heart and my support in these horrible days are with Ukraine and its brave people and with anyone brave enough, no matter where, that dares to say out loud: STOP THE WAR!
My Ukrainian Self portrait, oil on canvas, 2022
Leave a Reply