I collect flowers for life

I started creating this series in the Netherlands, where I temporarily stayed due to the war in Ukraine. Sadness for the Motherland, warryes, prompted me to create something very native. Our ancestors decorated the house for the holidays with flower wall paintings, or painted household items, children’s toys. This is how the best examples of Petrykivskyi, Yavorivskyi, and Simchichskyi paintings arose. Collecting flower compositions, I am trying to get closer to their way of depicting the world. I am looking for a method to create simple and understandable images, to talk about my pain, sadness, fascination and dreams.

Turning to flowers during the difficult time of the war, I also found support in this. This way of creating is not an escape, but rather a defense against reality. It is a way of confrontation and a message that the world is simple and understandable when you marvel at it.

The series includes more than fifty floral still life. I continue to create artworks of this series and each work that’s created really comes from the heart and connects me to our roots.