Category: 2022

Tania Stupnikova
Cactus Anton and fishing
Mixed media (acrylic, watercolor pencils) on canvas
65×85 cm
2022
Košice, Slovakia
Price: 490 EUR

They say that portrait artists always paint themselves – no matter who they paint. The artist’s features can always be found in the faces he paints.
I think you can also find me in each of my works.
Now I live in a beautiful country where people are very kind and pleasant. The ecology here is wonderful, we settled in perfectly. We can say that we live better than before the war – in fact, like in a resort.
But I still feel like a stranger – wrong, clumsy, illogical…. I don’t always understand my own feelings and I don’t really know what to do with it.
I think this is how the hero of my last painting feels. It is in a beautiful, magical place. But that is not his world, and he is superfluous in it. He is redundant for now, because he is learning. And everything will definitely work out for him.
And the cactus, I think, symbolizes a piece of home, our own world, that we carry with us. And it actually exists, it’s my daughter’s cactus. And she actually calls him Anton. ))))

Tania Stupnikova
Way station
Acrylic on canvas
100×70 cm
2022
Košice, Slovakia
Price: 790 EUR

At first it was just an imagine. Some kind of theater of the absurd, which I almost dreamed – like a hotel corridor, and there are two big smart caterpillars with a bunch of things, suitcases, a box, a cage and some other animal on a leash. But they are not in a hotel, but as if it were a teleport and they are moving to Earth.
Which is quite logical, because such nonsense is happening here, I would come myself to be a smart caterpillar. )))) That’s covid, then the war, then it’s not known at all. Apparently, the aliens were interested. They say that UFOs have been seen in Kyiv several times. They write both in the news and in chat rooms.
And then the picture took on a life of its own. It is lighter than it was in my imagination, the second caterpillar did not get in, and I hid the first one behind my helmet, because people, they are so prejudiced against other creatures.
As for the cage, it turns out I hate cages. None. So it can be assumed that I see myself in that bear. I don’t want to be in a cage, and I’d be happy to leave Earth, too, but where the hell is that teleporter? )))))

Tania Stupnikova
Emerald children
Acrylic on canvas
45×60 cm
2022
Košice, Slovakia
Price: 290 EUR

They were simply born and wanted to be. Like at a wedding – something new, something old, something blue.
I live on.
Today, my entire feed consists of these words: I live on. I allow myself to live. I allow myself to be happy. I allow myself to create something new. And this new will not be ruins, it will be something strange and sophisticated.
I no longer want torn strokes, wounds on the body of reality – I do not want to see it and I do not want to paint it. I want to paint the beauty and limitlessness of my worlds. Let them be born, not die.

Tania Stupnikova
How fast do you arrive?
Acrylic on canvas
50×60 cm
2022
Košice, Slovakia
Price: 160 EUR

The feeling of home for us is now lost forever, lost on February 24. Even those of us who can return home will never feel safe. Will never be able to be sure of tomorrow as long as there is evil nearby…
So this is not the world that exists today, the surreal world of our thoughts, memories and dreams. I draw this world to reality, I try to feel it, see it and come back.

Tania Stupnikova
Not on my watch
Acrylic on canvas
45×65 cm
2022
Košice, Slovakia
Price: 200 EUR

The demon of death will not take over the world as long as Ukraine stands guard over peace and life.
It so happened that at the very beginning of Russia’s insidious attack on Ukraine. In Japan, a stone was broken in which the spirit of death Tamamo-no-Mae was imprisoned. This is an evil demon with nine tails, the release of which can lead to the destruction of the universe. If we assume that this is true, it was the war that woke up the demon – because the stone split immediately after the beginning of the attack on Ukraine.
But I am sure that the spirit of Ukrainians is so strong that we can deal with any demon. I am convinced that the support of the civilized world will help us not to imprison that demon, but to kill him once and for all. That this horror never happened again.

Tania Stupnikova
Destination
Acrylic on canvas
2 x 16х22 cm
2022
Košice, Slovakia
Price: 90 EUR

Now all Ukrainian artists have an art block. Because you can’t read about Mariupol and go to paint. If you take up the brush – the picture will be difficult and scary – but how else can it be?
Every artist knows that it is impossible to drive pain inside – because then it will come out in seemingly joyful paintings, which will make you want to cry. It is necessary to let go of pain in order to free up even a little space, not even for joy, but for strength to return to normal life.
But I do not want destructive pictures – let what has brought us pain be destroyed, and the future we look to with hope triumph.
By the way, the next day, as I was drawing the ship, our Armed Forces of Ukraine hit a horde ship in Berdyansk.