I've been thinking about how to share the war-time works of illustrators and comic book artists from Ukraine for some time. The issue of course is that of language - many things would be lost without the text. Then two comics appeared in the New Yorker and New York Times - both by Zhenya Oliinyk and I decided to start there and just gather some of the comics that stayed with me the most and share them as is - in hopes that pictures will help with the missing language bits.
So here you are - Six Ukrainian illustrators that are creating art about the war and whose work I wanted to share.
For me, the weirdness of the shapes, deceptive simplicity, and lack of facial parts that would be expressing emotions make the subjects of these drawings only more real and close.
I noticed the range of textures overlapping colors first. Then I noticed the faces and hands and it just hit me. I think about those faces and hands often.
Jenya Polosina
Jenya Polosina and Anna Ivanenko run Studio Seri/Graph.
Jenya's works speak to my sense of being simultaneously connected and disconnected to the horror and truth of what is happening in Ukraine. For me, grainy textures and distorted views make it possible to continue looking at images so filled with pain.
For me, these illustrations feel very personal. Julia lives far away from Ukraine now but her pain is very visible even when from a great distance. I love unwrapping her detailed, layered, and very colorful illustrations made based on photos and accounts of her family and friends in Ukraine.
Illustrations are made with straightforward colors, dynamic lines, and interesting points of view. For me, they are bursting with feelings.
A series of colorful and sincere drawings about actual everyday life during the war. Done with lots of humor, kindness, amazing optimism, and unstoppable conviction that Ukraine will prevail against evil. The series of "Stories from the Basement" became a book:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp9zVWdgUzL/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp9zVWdgUzL/
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