I definitely didn’t intend this as a Ukrainian political painting before it was finished. It was a spontaneous one using tupperware containers with reserved paint mixed with heavy gel media to make sure I could correct and match previous paintings. (Definitely including Xenon Cookies.)

I wanted to experiment with paint-kniving on rough shapes and then using the knife to cut into them while still wet. I like the results, as the knife cut deep furrows making the shapes more interesting. It was only later that the violence of the whole composition plus the obvious Ukrainian colors popped out to me.

My ancestors, the Talsky’s, were Russians living in Ukraine, driven from their homeland by brutal religious programs, who nevertheless considered themselves Russian. So, the whole Ukrainian war really disturbs me and is something I struggle with relating to.

My actual ancestors did live near Odesa, but I just named it Odesa Oblast because I like the assonance of the two words, and the word oblast has such an explosive feeling in English.