April 2022 - The rape of independence
60x80 acrylic on canvas
On 21st February, 2022. Russia invaded Ukraine and commenced a new level of destruction and death. I have lived in a time of 'Peace in Europe' whbich was forged at the end of the WW2. This offensive, on the very edge of Europe felt unnervingly threatening.
The news reports came thick and fast; the video and photographs were more graphic than before as Europe was being asked to bear witness to the atrocities.
I couldn't get it off my mind. I couldn't settle to anything in the studio so was spending a lot of time sketching in the local boatyards, the quiet. morning streets, pagoda gardens and markets but that war was eating at my heart. I had to express something about iti so I picked up a canvas and let it all out. This was the result.,
Now, in 2024, we are watching it all happen again; this time in Palestine. This time worse, this time genocide, this time some truths about the world order are being revealed that are beyond belief. Now we know who is pulling the strings in wealthy countries that believed that they were democracies. Now we know how close we came to world Fascism during WW2. Now we are eye to eye with the monsters of greed, pride, wrath and lust.
Last summer, I spent one week in Turkey; in Istanbul and Bursa. I enjoyed being in this gentle European, Muslim country. Now that its near neighbour, an ancient Mediterranean multicultural country is being wiped off the map, my heart is being torn open.
Humanity is learning a hard lesson here. This genocide is holding up a mirror to all the colonising powers who have proudly committed the same crimes against powerless nations in their lust for power, greed for natural resources, exerting the kind of mindless wrath and destruction that comes from blind entitlement.
We see it everywhere that nationalism raises its ugly head, where humility, charity, gratitude and patience have been sidelined.
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