SoCal Artists Show Their Support for Ukraine
In Santa Ana, Taras Bohonok has been keeping tabs on the events unfolding in Ukraine following Russia's invasion in late February. A painter with work currently on view at Las Laguna Art Gallery in Laguna Beach, Bohonok was born in Ukraine and still has a lot of family in the country. So, he has kept up with news and connected with relatives during this time.
"I felt like this wasn't the time to sit on my hands," says Bohonok by phone. "If I didn't get up and do something to the best of my abilities, I might not have a chance later and I wouldn't be able to live with myself."
Last weekend, Bohonok turned up at the Stand For Ukraine Rally in Westwood with his art. He made a large sign with a vampiric caricature of Putin that played off a piece he displayed in San Francisco at the time of Ukraine's 2014 revolution. He also brought some of his paintings that he would raffle off to attendees while collecting donations for United Help Ukraine.
In times of crisis, art can take on various roles. As the situation in Ukraine has grown more dire, art has become a way for people voice their opinion online, as seen with the resurgence of Shepard Fairey’s "Make Art, Not War" print, now seen in yellow and blue, the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
"Art should do good. Otherwise, it just becomes decoration," says Bohonok. It can document history or prompt people to think about events, he says. That's essentially what Bohonok did with his protest sign.
But, there are other ways that art can help. "Another is to bring people joy, who are suffering in pain," he adds. That's something Bohonok knows from his experiences with painting portraits of people's deceased pets.
Then there's the monetary relief that art can bring. "I think art should finance good deeds," Bohonok says. In this respect, his watercolors, which weren't inherently political, were doing just that. He didn't require people to make a donation to enter the raffle at the protest, but at least 50 did. Others contributed donations without participating.
"I had an opportunity to sell my work and take those proceeds and donate them. That would have been one chunk of money and it would have gone to a random stranger," Bohonok says. But, the raffle allowed him to give away the pieces to fellow protestors. "It would go to people who are standing side-by-side with me in supporting Ukraine, so I know that work is going to find a good home," he explains, "and the quantity of money that we could probably raise together would probably exceed what I could make for that painting on my own."
I felt like this wasn't the time to sit on my hands.Taras Bohonok
In the process, Bohonok was able to connect with other protestors, including people from Russia and Belarus. In fact, a Russian man held Bohonok's protest sign while the artist was working the booth. "It was touching," he says.
Across the world, artists have been leveraging their work to help raise funds for aid to Ukraine, from an NFT sale led by Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to L.A.-based designer Vanessa Dahbour and performance artist Lara Salmon's "A T-Shirt For Ukraine" project.
If you venture into the Arts District, you can even make a donation by pointing your smart phone at a new mural. Recently, Corie Mattie, otherwise known as LA Hope Dealer, has been adding QR codes to her eye-catching murals. Open the camera on your phone, focus on the code and it will direct you a site where you can make a donation or find more information related to the issue depicted in the piece. If you do this while viewing "To Ukraine With Love," her recent collaboration with artist Juliano Trindade, you might visit the National Bank of Ukraine website."
"I knew that I wanted to give back to Ukraine," says Mattie as we stand in front of the mural on Traction Street. "There's a lot of foot traffic over here."
Mattie, who gained recognition back in 2020 for street art that reflected the COVID-19 pandemic, was working on a mural down on Melrose Avenue when news broke about Ukraine. She noticed that artists from Ukraine were reaching out for help and the situation hit very close to home.
"Being in the intersection between art and activism, I knew that I had to do something," she says.
The mural came to life on a community wall not too far from Arts District Brewing.
Work on the mural began on a community wall, not too far from Arts District Brewing, on Saturday afternoon and was completed the following day. Mattie brought in Trindade, who is better known as a tattoo artist and has inked Mattie's own hand. "If I was going to trust anyone, it was going to be him," she says, remarking that the artist's style "looks like it would be in a history book," a perfect fit for the project.
"To Ukraine With Love" depicts doves flying while pulling Putin's severed head, the strings connecting them to his flesh pulling the Russian president's face into a grimace. "I know that it's a little grotesque, but he is too," says Mattie.
"It doesn't have to stand for him physically being beheaded. It's more like taking away his power or his ego and the doves obviously represent hope and peace," she adds. "So, it was almost like banding together with the rest of the world and Ukraine, we can take him down."
Coincidentally, a golden trumpet tree stands across from it on the side walk, its current blooms providing a frame that's remarkably similar to the yellow of the Ukrainian flag. The striking image has attracted passers-by; one stopped by to snap photos while we were doing this interview.
The mural has had some interesting reactions too. Mattie says that she overheard someone ask "Is that Putin's head?" She notes that the image is a different from the work she's become known for making. "I'm pretty positive and don't really have violent type of things on here," she says, "but, for this one, I think it was necessary."
She says, "I'm hoping it gets people to think or act or even shift their perspective on what's going on."
