NEBRASKA CITY -  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine canceled  prestigious art exhibits for Olena Mosiyevych  and left her artwork that had been on display at museums now unaccounted for, but she is painting again in the United States and striving to help her homeland.

Her exhibition in Nebraska City is a reflection about “Canceled Because of War.”

Mosiyevych: “After war beginning I couldn’t paint painting and I can’t create art because all my soul was with Ukraine and every day, every minute I was thinking what I could do for Ukraine to help the situation.”

 

 

Nita Whitney of Auburn was going through some of her own artwork and re-encountered her sunflower painting with blue sky that reminded her of the Ukrainian flag and her friend Olena.

Whitney: “When I gave her the sunflower painting she said we must have a fundraising art auction and, in 10 days time, Olena and I were able to find artists in Brownville, Auburn and around southeast Nebraska.”

An art auction at Hickory Grove Lutheran Church raised $26,000 for Ukrainian relief and helped put Olena on the path to painting again.

Mosiyevych: “Some months later I decided that I should paint because I need to document this experience. I need to document this pain  that is not even possible to describe .”

Some of her recent work is on display at the KHN Center of the Arts in Nebraska City.

Whitney: “The art exhibit is so emotionally catching, especially when  you know the history of the fact that some of Olena’s artwork was lost because of this war. … The explosions … I mean they get you in the gut. You really realize what it had to have been like seeing that happen.”

 

 

Mosiyevych said the images of bombed Ukrainian cities are in  her mind, but in her heart there is a sense of  hope.

Mosiyevych: “I’m still to commence this process. I continue to do this work now. This is work. It is not easy because it is not easy to show this old pain in art.”

Mosiyevych and her family moved from Kyiv, Ukraine while Russian troops were amassing at the border. Her work was being exhibited at various museums across Ukraine, including the Modern Art Museum in Mariupol.