diving from winter into summer. white skin on bright blue. Print

My sister Lilya is the inspiration for this artwork. Here I captured the remembrance from my first trip to the Netherlands, in the summer of 2019. It was one of the lazy sunny days that hot summer, my sister tightened her long hair to went swimming in the north sea waters. That work is a reflection of my feelings NOW as a person who escaped from war, who trying to live and work here and still feels free inside, and chooses to grow up love inside, enjoys every second of life, has hope, strength, confidence, courage, and continues to live not in spite of, but due to external circumstances, trying to show myself, comparing with THAT peaceful times, when I was just a 17 years old tourist here but in deep depression, confusion and darkness, trying to hide and kill any light inside of me. It is like diving into different states of mind, and any of them are important, precious, and necessary to live through. A sense of abrupt change is captured here by harsh light on snow-white sensitive skin in contrast to the cold deep-sky background.