Inka Essenhigh’s painting Estuary, 2022, is available in the online fundraising sale Impact: Artists in Support of Refugees from Ukraine, now live on Artsy, an emergency benefit auction to support relief for refugees fleeing Ukraine.
'Although I am only half Ukrainian, the Ukrainian-American community was a large part of my life as I was growing up,' writes the artist.
'My mom, who left Ukraine at the end of WWII, was a part of a community of people who saw themselves as keepers of the language and culture that was being destroyed by the Soviets. I went to Saturday morning Ukrainian school (although I eventually abandoned it for art classes). I went to a Ukrainian camp (no so fun because my Ukrainian wasn't that good). I worked at a Ukrainian resort in upstate NY and painted signs for the Ukrainian church. And I dutifully corrected anyone who foolishly put "the" in front of "Ukraine"!'
'In 1990, my mom and her Ukrainian friends organised a trip to Ukraine for their teenaged children. It was during the Soviet years and part of our mission was to smuggle in a computer... It was on this trip that I realised just how American I was and how foreign the Ukrainian experience was to my life in Ohio.'
'Stories of what happened during the period of Stalinization filled my imagination. They were stories that people I knew well had actually lived through. Stories about the famine, of people being rounded up in the middle of the night and shot, of property seized, of children reporting on their parents and many other outrages.'
'It's really no wonder to me that the Ukrainian people are fighting so hard against the Russian invasion.'
The sale continues until 14 April 2022
Image: Inka Essenhigh, Estuary, 2022
28 x 32 in
