“Painting was like getting a burden off our shoulders”

The artwork will be presented in mid-March at the regional branch of the National Union of Artists; during the presentation a fundraiser will be opened in order to assist rehabilitation of war survivors. The yesterday’s soldiers painted those pictures during their psychological trainings, which the 51st Brigade’s assistance center for military in Kovel has been conducting since September. “Warm the soul!” is a pilot project for rehabilitation and it improves after each time – after all, Ukraine lacks military rehabilitation such as those in Russia, not to mention Israel. Art therapy was the idea of Antonii Melnyk, psychologist and professor of the Lesia Ukrainka Eastern European National University – he suggested the soldiers draw their enemies, the fears they lived through on the war… The soldiers were drawing – and it was like a burden was falling from their shoulders.

Tetiana Mialkovska, the Union of Artists member who was in charge of the most recent rehabilitation course, which took place in Carpathian Sheshory (the previous ones were carried out in Volyn, particularly on Svitiaz lake and at the “Prolisok” sanatorium), says that she was herself impressed and amused by the results. She was asked to conduct such a training with the yesterday’s soldiers by one of her acquaintances in military who now fights in ATO – previously the man took his children to Mialkovska’s art studio, “Piaternia.” Seeing the paintings by the soldiers, it is hard to believe that many of them has not been drawing for the past ten years, and even more never really held a brush in their hands. Such, as they say, is the power of art and the talent of their instructor – they are capable of miracles. The soldiers drew their sacred paintings in many techniques: on the canvas, on the glass, and even with their fingers. This latter is a particular manner of drawing that has its own advantages – the increase of self-esteem and the appeasement for the troubled soul. Mialkovska insists on the importance of painting from the authentic samples – she took her wards to museums, monasteries, and churches to make them see the holy images with their own eyes. It is also crucial to understand one’s national identity – the borders may change, but the nation lives only when its culture and art are flourishing.

Apart from the icons, the soldiers were, of course, drawing landscapes, portraits, and everything they might have found pleasing.

After the exhibition will have finished in Lutsk, it will be taken to Poland – so that more people will be able to see it and at the same time, more money will be donated to the needs of further rehabilitation of Ukrainian soldiers.