War Diary by Olga Grebennik As a children book illustrator, there is an artist who drew flowers, gardens, and angels with fancy colors, but one morning, with only a pencil, painted the horrors of war. She is illustrator Olga Grebennik from Ukraine. In March 2022, in the basement of the village of Kharkov in her hometown, she wrote a "war diary" in 8 days. She did so to stay afloat in explosions and sirens in the midst of a relentless armed conflict. “The War Diary tried to ‘record’ what was happening right before my eyes, rather than adding special thoughts and imagination. Since I had to draw quickly with only a pencil, I finished one sketch in 5-6 minutes on average. It had to be very different from what I had drawn before. I didn't know that my next story, which drew and published the daily life of a happy fox family, would be a War Diary." There was a terrific time when, like Olga, we all went through a pandemic and imagined our peaceful everyday life like a dream. And the brutal war that destroys everything and leaves nothing behind leaves deep, irreparable wounds that make it impossible to even dream of everyday life. And like Olga, when she trembles with fear and directly experiences the war in her life, she tried to send a message to many people by leaving these horrors in pictures and records. And above all else, if the horrors of war are right in front of you, you will react as desperately as Olga did. On the first day of the war, writer Olga Grevennik wrote children's name, date of birth, and contact information on the arms of himself and his two young children, respectively. To identify the identity after death, and to leave minimal information when children become orphans. From the ground to the underground, and finally to the outside of the border, Olga and the children were pushed away. She was given only 10 minutes to throw away her entire 35-year life. She managed to evacuate with only one backpack. Before the war, Olga, who had donated clothes to the Red Cross every time, became a refugee receiving the support overnight. She currently resides in a village in Bulgaria as a refugee. Like Olga, four months after the outbreak of the war, many of the refugees from Ukraine are returning to their homeland. It's not because the dangers of war are diminished. Olga explained in her war diary that it was either because they failed to establish a shelter, or because they could no longer endure the longing for their family. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, news that makes us nervous, such as the threat of war between China and Taiwan, is spreading. No one can guarantee that something like Olga will not happen in their life. She, too, would not have known in advance that she had to start from scratch like a baby in a strange land after she was 35 years old amid the strife of war she faced at the age of 35. I thank her for her courage to record vividly the horrors of war with only a pencil in her eight days of pain and horror. Above all, I hope this book will be seen and read by more people. Let's take a moment to quote her from an interview on the Internet. It shows just how much the painting allowed her to seize her mind with great fear. We are ok in Bulgaria. It is good, warm, and the food is tasty. But these days are here and now. Tomorrow, as far as I remember it, does not exist for me. Even if the war is over, we cannot return our precious daily life, people and memories. Because everything has been destroyed and destroyed. So they want peace and try to prevent war.
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My painting, Life is.. in local newspaper. Yesterday, Mills Pond gallery emailed me that one of my drawings was featured in a newspaper. It's always one of the things I'm grateful for. The even small notices like these are a big message of support for me as I have to run a long-distance marathon. Especially in my case, I am desperately running to draw. Relatively less time to draw compared to other painters, so I have to fight against time every time. All drawings should be made as small as possible as quickly as possible and the cost should be kept to a minimum, but the quality of the artwork should be great. Above all else, I need to divide my spare time to promote and constantly create ideas to make money with my paintings. In order not to lose the opportunity for self-development and upgrade, I should participate in this artist open call and hold a group exhibition with other artists to gather information and to make a network. But I am always grateful for this situation. Because being able to draw is a great blessing. I couldn't even imagine in the difficult days of the past that I would be given a life that I could live with while I was busy like this. In my youth, I always thought of the struggling families around me first and lived by solving their problems. It can be said that my dreams and future were almost non-existent. But as the years passed, I was proudly independent of their problems. And I'm thinking of my dream and running to make it come true. There were times when I felt it was too late to realize it, and it was painful, but it must have been a good fertilizer for me too. Anyway, now that I'm drawing, I can be grateful for everything in the past. I can't think of a big achievement because I have to walk little by little slowly. But, like the news paper above, I think there will be some good results if it will be revealed one by one. And above all else, I found my life through painting, so I think this is the biggest achievement in itself. Just as the yellow butterfly flies with zig-zags shape desperately to survive, to escape from predators, and sits on a flower of the same color as it, vigilantly sucking nectar, so did I in life. In fact, as you know, life itself is for survival. But even from a far, this would be a very beautiful sight.
I also draw beautiful pictures every day. But these paintings have to be sold to make a living. So I try every day with efforts. It will be like a butterfly that flies to and fro in search of honey every day. I hope that these processes of my life will become beautiful works of art when viewed from a distance. |
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