Tomorrow is the day we’ve been waiting for nine years. The war will leave our homes, the sky will clear, and the sun of freedom will rise again over the free land. I’ve been contemplating what tomorrow holds. Our cities won’t rise from the ashes, those we’ve lost won’t return, and we ourselves won’t suddenly enter a land of wealth and success. However, something deeper will change. Something that only those living in today can understand.

This cycle has been inspired by the works of American realists such as Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Charles L. Peterson, Hart Benton, and Grant Wood. They depicted the simple lives of ordinary people. Their paintings, infused with light and calm, faith in humanity, and freedom as an undeniable simple truth.

This is how I envision tomorrow’s Ukraine: freedom for everyone and peaceful life as the highest ideals that accompany us into the new world we are attaining right now. This will be our paradise, which even in the darkest times shines within each of us. That’s why I used these idyllic paintings as a basis for finding meaningful connections between post-war America and the future post-war Ukraine, highlighting analogies and differences between our worlds.

But how will Ukrainians themselves be in this paradise? The horrors of war have left an indelible mark on our hearts. Therefore, the protagonists of my paintings are those who suffer from PTSD. They are shadows who find themselves in the radiant world of simple peaceful life, trying to adapt to or get used to the fact that everything is already behind. Getting used to, while hiding boundless emptiness behind smiles.

#NEIVANMADE