Tania Stupnikova
They also…
Acrylic on canvas
60×60 cm x 2 pieces
2023
Košice, Slovakia
Price: 490 EUR
From the very beginning, I conceived this picture as a story about otherworldly creatures. I believe that a fairy tale lives somewhere near us, so otherworldly creatures also suffer from calamities, from war and destruction.
But in the end, I still painted my life. The big cat is the embodiment of our older kitty – Ciri. We picked her up on the street seven years ago, and since then she has adopted our daughter and considers her her own. It seems that she thinks that we are at their house, and we need to go somewhere and live our own lives, not to disturb them with our daughter.
And the little kitten looks like our youngest, Jonesy. She was also picked up from the street four years ago, and all these years she has been acting like a silly baby.
They both lost their home for the second time after being thrown out on the street the first time, and they went through the whole difficult journey to Slovakia with us. They sat with us at the station, rode the evacuation train and stood with us in the cold on the foot crossing to Slovakia.
I didn’t plan to draw our cats and our story, but it turned out that way. We are indeed always painting ourselves – even when we are painting something else.
So this story is still about the fact that everyone suffers from war. And they suffer even more, because they do not understand what is happening, what will happen and how to save themselves.