I have decided that until this war is over, all my sketches will include blue and yellow, in honour of the Ukrainian flag. A few of our sketchers have protested at the Russian embassy and I know a lot of them are donating what they can. Unfortunately, some others don't want to mix art and war. To be honest, I don't get it. What is the point in art if it doesn't reflect our emotions and the things that are important to us as human beings? Right now, all that matters to me is my Ukrainians friends, fellow sketchers, some in Ireland, some who are now refugees in other countries, some still in Ukraine. I can donate money, I can protest, I can sign petitions to influence world leaders. And I can share my blue and yellow sketches for moral support.
Last Sunday, the location chosen by Dublin Sketchers was the Jeanie Johnston, a famine ship that brought Irish people across the Atlantic to escape famine (our wheat was being sent to England, while a million Irish people starved to death due to the potato blight). So I thought of refugees from Ukraine and around the world. Nothing much has changed since 1845. And 1940 (My Dad and his family were refugees in the South of France, staying with a French family on a farm, when the German army invaded Belgium at the start of WWII).
And rather than just sketch what was in front of me, I decided to connect it with what is happening now in Ukraine. So, you will see a lot of yellow and blue from me, as I'm thinking of Ukraine, Europe, democracy and freedom.
If you have sketches or art that supports the Ukrainian people, share it on Instagram with our Urban Sketcher friends in Ivano-Frankivsk. They are reposting art from all around the world. They need all the moral and humanitarian support they can get.
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