Small Hero, Art for Ukraine.
“I don’t like perfect people, those who have never fallen, never stumbled. Theirs is a dull virtue, of little value. To them the beauty of life has not been revealed” said Boris Pasternak.
For this reason I love to paint imperfect people, in the sense not of a canonical aesthetic beauty but a distorted, asymmetrical beauty.
I worked for days and days on a small series of paintings.
I analyzed the pain, the melancholy, the sense of loss of those who are struggling.
It could be war, or it could be a natural disaster, fleeing a dictatorship.
The world is full of injustice and people’s lives are truly endangered every day everywhere.
Six canvases, six groups of heroes painted with empathy, with brilliant acrylics.
I wanted violent, loud, redundant color.
Red, blue, yellow to the nth degree.
This is it.
After days of work the six paintings are finished.
They are 40×40 cm (15,7×15,7 inches) canvases, also painted on the side (title and phrase by Bertolt Brecht, signed on the back).
Not being in any group or site that deals with charity, I thought I should move individually and contribute to the reconstruction of souls and places.
I think Art in itself cannot heal wounds, but I live in a country where I can express myself and where I can say what I think.
And in this I am very lucky.
Art can’t always be cute poses and little flowers scattered on lawns.
Not right now. At least I don’t feel like it.
Art in this moment must also be political.
Attention, not of regime or propaganda, but it must witness the times.
And the times are dark.
My heroes are ordinary people who suddenly find themselves involved in something devastating and irrational.
We don’t need no tyrants, no dictatorships, no blood and destruction. Yet it happens, again and again here in Europe, in other parts of the world for a long time, all the time.
My first heroes were the people arriving from the sea while fleeing war, death, torture, climate change.
Then the discourse expanded and here we are.
So many little heroes trying to survive every day.
The six canvases I painted are for sale. The link is below.
Shipping is on me and 20% of each painting will go by wire transfer to Red Cross/Unicef/UNHCR.
As I have said several times, I will add the transfer in addition to the painting documents and invoice.
This is the beginning.
If I can contribute my work I am happy.
If you collect something of mine by participating in the project, there will be two of us, which is already a happy crowd.
There is no auction, no time limit.
The paintings await the most sensitive collectors, and I know that among you there are many.
If you like the project, if you want to contribute, I will smear a nice cadmium red on your nose and smile at you.
Welcome.
Tell your friends, share the link, look for those who need to make a gift, those who are furnishing a new house, those who believe that Art can move, those who are idealists and believe in conflict resolution, those who are optimists despite everything, those who, like me, believe that Art can move people.
Mine is a small dream of solidarity.
