At first glance, Yuliia “Juli” Hvozdetska doesn’t come across as someone whose family is in peril. Sporting a pink onesie with her glossy black hair let down, the 25-year-old former model looks like any other foreigner in Bangkok.
With a shy smile, Hvozdetska allows a reporter into her studio condo where all four walls are covered by painting after painting. She said she was cleaning; her place is neat and tidy.
Hvozdetska is an artist. She works in oil and acrylic and does some illustrations. Her room is surrounded by the soft, warm colors of images that include flowers and rural landscapes. Hvozdetska’s condo is also her studio, and at the center of it is a table piled with her paints.
Hvozdetska’s story is a bit more complicated than that of a typical Bangkok art student. Her country, Ukraine, was invaded soon after she departed in February. It was one week after settling into her new home that her mom called.
“First, I woke up and my mom called me and she said, ‘War is starting.’ And I said ‘What?’ And I hardly believed it, and it was hard to imagine how is it possible,” Hvozdetska said. “And she started to say there were bombs and shooting.”
Since then, Hvozdetska has spoken to her family, who live near the border with Russia, almost every day, but sometimes the violence prevents it. Hvozdetska said that it’s sometimes better for her family to not call as she worries the Russian military might track the call and find them. At the time of our interview, her family was forced to stay in a bomb shelter rather than their home.
More than six million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, according to the United Nations. More than 5.6 million of those refugees live in neighboring countries, mostly in Poland.
But Hvozdetska is in Thailand. It’s a country where she doesn’t speak the language and has no family ties. After Hvozdetska’s mother broke the news of the invasion, the artist couldn’t paint for two weeks.
“I always was with my phone, just sleeping with my phone, and checked about every 30 minutes,” she said.
But after two weeks, Hvozdetska returned to her art with a new sense of dedication, painting and drawing even more than before. Her works, which include mainly oil and acrylic paintings as well as illustration and water colors, have become a refuge from the violence.
Despite the images of violence and death coming out of Ukraine, including the bombing of a maternity hospital, Hvozdetska doesn’t paint war and bloodshed. Instead, she creates picturesque scenery.
Asked why she paints beautiful scenery despite the violence, Hvozdetska said she painted the flowers with the hope of winning.
One of her newer works, an oil painting titled Flowers of Victory shows yellow flowers in a clear vase, atop a blue surface. The background is also yellow. The only color apart from blue and yellow is the deep green of the flower’s stems.
“I just felt it. I felt like I wanted to paint flowers with yellow and blue. These remind me of Ukraine, remind me of peace,” Hvozdetska said. “Because I wish we could win.”
An older, landscape oil painting features a pond in a countryside surrounded by trees and pastures. She painted the piece from a photo. Though it may only be an accident or coincidence, the colors in this painting also evoke the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag.
“The world learned who the Ukrainians are,” she said. “Flowers have always been a symbol of peace. In this case, it is a symbol of victory.”
She’s not the only Ukrainian artist in Bangkok. Tetiana Cherevan is also using her art to communicate the beauty of Ukraine. Cherevan has been in Thailand for many years, and the invasion began when her family was in the kingdom visiting.
She recently created a mural on a wall at Chulalongkorn University based on one of her 2014 paintings at the invitation of the Humanitarian and Human Rights Affairs Department The mural shows Berehynia, a slavic goddess who Cherevan said is a guardian to Ukrainians. She said Berehynia is known as a helper to those who live by the principles of truth and honor.
Though dreamy, it is not meant to pacifistic.
“I won’t paint Ukraine knelt down. Ukraine is destroyed now, in blood, in grief, every Ukrainian heart is broken wherever they are,” Cherevan said. “However, Ukrainians are people with great history, with sincere hearts. Ukraine on my mural is smiling since it is life-affirming.”
For Hvozdetska, her most intricate piece is Island of Stability in a Sea of Chaos. She spent five hours for five days drawing the piece with only a black pen. In the middle of hundreds of flowery, black and white layers is a round monochrome earth containing an astronaut. Hvozdetska said the astronaut represents her. Though not explicitly about Ukraine, the images is meant to represent the problems with everything in life, she said.
“But in the middle it’s me,” she said. “Like I’m trying to keep harmony, balance.”
After spending so many hours fervently creating the piece, Hvozdetska does not plan to sell it as she has quite an emotional connection to it. It is her favorite piece she has done.
Hvozdetska had originally planned to visit home for a few months in March or April, but the invasion has kept her in the concrete jungle of Bangkok. After making more connections in Bangkok’s art scene, Hvozdetska wants to continue using her art to make people aware of Ukraine.
“I wanna make more art to show all people around the world how beautiful Ukraine is. And how strong people are, how we can win this war and how we can stay together. Everyone.”
Find Hvozdetska and Cherevan on Instagram.
