UKRAINE

DIARY of a War

THE URBAN SKETCHERS TAG LINE IS “SHOW THE WORLD, ONE SKETCH AT A TIME.” IN KEEPING WITH THIS SPIRIT, WE ASKED URBAN SKETCHER, NINA KRASHCHINA, TO SHARE HER WORK, ALONG WITH THAT OF OTHER UKRAINIAN URBAN SKETCHERS.

These pages: Nina Khashchina is a Ukrainian-born nature and food illustrator, and designer, gouache enthusiast, and sketchbook artist located in California. Her parents live in Kharkiv, Ukraine and before the war they would talk about twice a week by video calls. She has been posting sketches of her phone calls with her Ukrainian parents to tell their story.

Nina: Since the beginning of the war on 24 February 2022, we have been connecting multiple times a day via texts and phone calls to check on the status of different parts of the family and friends. And we have one long video call when I get to draw them. We are a Russian-speaking family, and most of the little bits of conversations in these sketches are in Russian. Kharkiv was a Russian-speaking city when I was growing up, and when I was in school, Ukrainian was taught only from the 4th grade – the same as a foreign language. So my Ukrainian is not as fluent as I wish it were, but both my parents are fluent and our conversations turn to Ukrainian history and language often. Day 7 (above): My parents are sitting in a very dark room as we speak. The whole city is under a curfew, with orders to keep all lights out. This is a preventive measure to make it harder to aim for the artillery and air attacks. But it is very hard to operate in the darkness for my parents, so they are trying to finish all the daily tasks before 8 pm. Two Russian missile hit Kharkiv regional administration building and a square next to it, where Kharkiv’s oldest University is. My mom works there; her co-workers reported that windows and doors were blown out by the shock wave from the missiles. Day 17 (above right): If you look at this image you will see yellow circles – each time I heard an explosion during our call I wrote it down. Our

conversation on that day was about events of the day: A light dusting of snow overnight helped with the air quality and also made everything prettier. The highlight was a visit from their grandkid who has a birthday tomorrow. She brought meds and food and one of the neighbors made a special cake for her! Day 23 (above right): Bombing which started in the night was so loud that they both hardly slept and then did not have much energy during the day. But the weather was gorgeous. Volunteers brought my parents some food: three apples, some potatoes, 10 carrots, a few onions, boxes with prepared sausages with some porridge, and a pack of milk. They organized a “feast” with the neighbors. The garbage truck came. We were talking about how grateful we are to the people who organized food for my parents. And to the city workers repairing power, phone and internet lines under the non-stop shelling. (Right): After many days of daily shelling of Kharkiv, we were able to relocate my parents to a nearby region. This was drawn on day 60 of the war. It is relatively quiet where they are now; they can go outside without being constantly afraid of Russian artillery. They are still having a hard time sleeping through the night and are constantly worried for the remainder of the family in Kharkiv. And friends, of course. And neighbors. And about their grandson in the army. About all the family and friends that are now displaced. A team of volunteers supports them and we continue our daily video calls, and I continue to draw them – you can see more on my blog.

Right: Uliana Balan is an Illustrator, story-board artist and batik painting artist from Kyiv, Ukraine. She was in Kyiv when the war began and was able to evacuate to Stockholm where she continues to work on a sketching project about evacuated people for upcoming exhibitions in Uppsala and Stockholm galleries.

Mistograf: Large Kharkiv became tiny for us: only a yard where we would go to get a breath of fresh air and take out the trash. Our basement had a tiny window that we kept blacked out to make sure that no light escaped. All loud sounds became scary – every banging door was perceived as a sound of artillery. Time was spent in long lines – at the bank, pharmacy, or at the food supermarket – all of which were open for just a few hours a day. Every purchase was made with the thought that we are not sure when there will be a chance to get out safely. Curfew started pretty early, especially during the first week, and lasted over 24 hours at first. We listened to an old radio, read news online and spoke to the neighbors. Kharkiv is well known for its subway system but all the beautiful stations became bomb shelters where families slept and kids studied. We decided to stay in our basement and a hallway in our apartment where the rule of two walls was working for us. The rule is that there should be two walls between the street and you – on all sides – to survive all the glass that gets blown in when artillery or missile hit a building nearby. For six days we lived like this but, when all the neighbors left, we decided to evacuate and went to the train station where we were able to board a train to Lviv. It was filled to the brim with people and pets. We had a short break in Lviv where we organized help for our parents and tried to cobble together some plans (thinking in Kharkiv – under shelling – was impossible). And now we are living many miles away from our home in a tiny village in the mountains. Unfortunately we don’t have all our equipment and sketching tools but we continue working on our zines and this project and our work has a new meaning for us now. The war changed our understanding of space, comfort, and the ways things work but it did not change our interest in making interesting things, being a useful part of society’s movements and learning about the similarities and differences one can find in different Ukrainian towns.

Uliana | 28 February 2022 (far left): Train Station. People are trying to get onto evacuation trains. Their destination is unknown for most of them, as well as the duration of this exile. They leave home, work, and families and friends are separated. There are very many people in this train station, and this is a humanitarian crisis.

March 5, 2022 (left): Sirens are blaring again. This drawing shows my friend and her youngest son – we are hiding at their place from the russian missiles that hit our people, and the cities of Kharkiv, Zhitomir etc. I used to draw architecture in Kharkiv, as there are some wonderful buildings from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Used to be – now it is bombed. w

Left: “Mistograf” is a family of architects and urbanists. Tanja and Jaroslav and their three kids were living in Kharkiv (population before the war 1.5 million) in the east of Ukraine. When the war with russia began on 24 February, 2022 they, together with their parents, spent five days hiding in a basement of one of the buildings in the center of the city.

Below: Lviv’s historic statues are safeguarded against Russian shelling by being wrapped in protective sheets. Olena Ivchenko sketches the process on Market square in the middle of March. Since then, Lviv has been bombed several times.

Work by ‘Mistograf’

day 39 day 14 Left: Ksenya Holovko is an artist and urban sketcher from IvanoFrankivsk. She is a moderator of Urban Sketchers IF. For these sketches, she used micron 0.8 and derwent 0.3 liners, sakura pen 0.5, coloured pencils, and a Kooh-i-noor magic pencil.

Ksenya | (left): I drew people in the Urban space 100 restaurant. There were Territorial Armed Defense fighters and volunteers, refugees and locals. The large panoramic window was closed with a projector screen, where current news is constantly shown. Instead of decorations for the spring – a counter of damaged enemy equipment. We have all changed, and so have the restaurants.

(below left): This sketch was made after our sketch meeting in a cafe. I saw a monument of Ivan Franko, Ukrainian poet and writer, after whom our Ivano-Frankivsk is named. Territorial defense fighters started to protect it with sandbags, and I decided to make a quick sketch of this work in progress. A few days before this, in Kharkiv, Taras Shevchenko’s monument was protected with sandbags and there was a meme about Shevchenko’s metamorphosis, like a butterfly. I wanted to remember Franko’s metamorphosis in our Ivano-Frankivsk. Now the monument is covered to the very top, so we will probably only see Franko again after the victory. This was the 39th day of the war.

(overleaf): Ivano-Frankivsk old city hall, Ratusha. Now it is a local history museum. In the first days, volunteers set up tents with a field kitchen for refugees and first aid courses near Ratusha. We gathered for our first sketch meeting since the war started; this was the 14th day of the war. Two weeks seemed to be one very long day.

day 14

Right: Anna Rzhevskaia is an artist, illustrator, printmaker, and urban sketcher from Kharkiv. After the invasion she was able to relocate to Ivano-Frankivsk where she continues to sketch daily. day 59 (left): This sketch was made a few days ago in Lviv, when I, like many other Ukrainians, travel to my parents for the Easter weekend. I spent two and a half hours in the basement in the center of Lviv with many other people and their pets. The building is old, and we talked about the fact that people probably hid in this basement in both the First and Second World Wars. I drew to be distracted and not to think that we are in the center of Lviv. On that day, a young woman named Valeria Hlodan was killed in her apartment in Odesa with her mother and three-month-old daughter. The 59th day of the war.

The war has changed many things, but iprofessionally it has changed Anna’s relationship to sketching. She feels it’s a privilege as she can draw outside now, instead of in a bomb shelter as in the first days of war in Kharkiv, and she has materials. This new relationship prompted a more experimental approach to materials. In evacuation, she was able to take only her favorite fountain pen and a couple of graphite pencils with her. Now she is experimenting with different paper, interested in color pencils for the first time, and in general realizing that you can make interesting sketches even with random or cheap materials. Anna sees that many people draw war situations to document what is going on but she feels that, for her, sketching is more about ways to catch something peaceful in the chaos of the war.

RIGHT: AT THE GAS STATION WHILE DRIVING FROM KHARKIV. THE OTHER UNCAPTIONED SKETCHES WERE DONE WITH THE USK GROUP IN IVANO- FRANKIVSK

KHARKIV, BASEMENT

Urban Sketching in a Time of War

IRYNA VODOLAZHCHENKO IS AN URBAN SKETCHER FROM KHARKIV, UKRAINE. SHE GREW UP IN A QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE SECOND LARGEST UKRAINIAN CITY LOCATED ABOUT 20 MILES FROM THE RUSSIAN BORDER. HERE SHE TALKS TO RITA SABLER

In the days before the war, Iryna’s life was full of preparations for her art exhibit, work on a new mural, her yoga practice, and sketching her city in her free time. Early the morning of February 24, 2022 Iryna’s brother woke her up with words: “It started… The war started.” The news sent Iryna into a panic attack. She recalls running around the apartment aimlessly, trying to pack her things and contact her friends and family.

Our conversation took place late at night, in the dark, some 45 days later. Iryna used a flashlight to talk to me on her brother’s computer, but I could only see a small part of her pale face. Click here for the audio story about Iryna. The original conversation is translated from Russian and edited for clarity.

What were some of your memories

from the first days of the war? One of the strong memories was sheltering from the bombings in an underground metro station. We were there the first day when an air raid started. It was supposed to be one of the safest places during bombings.

There were a lot of people who came into the metro during the air raids. They brought their dogs, their kids. They laid down their blankets. Some even smoked. Some spoke very loudly. And it was a very strange feeling, like we were at a giant train station. There were some crazy characters there. I thought possibly these could be the last minutes of my life. At least that’s what it seemed like to me at the moment.

Tell me about the sketch you did in

the metro. I took out my sketchbook and started drawing. It was difficult. My hands were shaking. I remember I was not happy with how it was coming out. I remember that when I finished, one woman who noticed me drawing smiled at me. That was nice.

How does it feel to be drawing during the time of war? Sometimes I feel guilty…. because drawing right now is not the most useful activity in this situation. If I was working in a different field, it would be more useful for my country, for the situation, for my people.

What is your background? Do you

have any training in art? I got my masters degree in art therapy and my thesis had to do with sketching as a method of nonverbal communication. I studied the influence of drawing on the emotional state of a person.

What is the significance of urban sketching in the moments of extreme

trauma, like war? Urban sketching is therapeutic, especially, when it happens in a community because what happens is the exchange, and a feeling of belonging to a group. It is important to feel that you are a part of something bigger.

This act of drawing and sharing could be motivating for others. It is important to start this chain of inspiration–what you do can motivate others. Many people would write me thanking me; saying that seeing me draw in these hard conditions inspires them… After 10 days of shelling and bombing Iryna Vodolazhchenko and her family decided that it was time to leave Kharkiv. Her dad advised her to pack her bag the night before because the next morning there would be an opportunity to leave town in a car with her relatives. I wanted to know what a fellow sketcher would pack, not knowing whether they would be coming back. How would they choose what to leave behind to the soundtrack of sirens and bombings.

Here is what Iryna told me: I went to search for my sketchbooks, my artwork. I thought of these things first and started to pack them into my bag. Since it was impossible to take everything I picked three of my favorite sketchbooks. I think they represent some of my strongest work. I took a few empty sketchbooks as well along with my favorite tools. I took about 40 markers in a black case with me. I also brought my yoga mat in order to exercise and possibly have something to sleep on in case there was no bed. I took things that I could fit into a backpack and a bag with important documents, my art tools, and my sketchbooks. I wanted to bring other tools, like my watercolors, but there was not much space. I knew I would be traveling in a car with my relatives and their kids.

Now in Oleksandriya, a small town in central Ukraine, Iryna and her family feel safe. But this safety is only relative. Life is very different. At night, residents of Ukrainian towns turn off lights to avoid being targeted. Part of her family, including her grandparents, are still in Kharkiv, and she’s worried about them as the military operations in eastern Ukraine are intensifying.

Click here to listen to the Audio Story about Iryna Vodolazhchenko. “I CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT WHEN A PERSON DRAWS THE CURRENT MOMENT AND RECORDS THEIR STATE IT IS A FORM OF THERAPY, AND IT IS VERY EFFECTIVE.

IT WAS ONE OF THE METHODS TO RECORD REALITY AS IT WAS HAPPENING AND FEEL USEFUL THAT I WAS DOCUMENTING THE EVENTS HONESTLY AND THROUGH MY OWN EMOTIONS. IT WAS BOTH THERAPY AND A FORM OF FIELD JOURNALISM…” – IRYNA VODOLAZHCHENKO

ABOVE: STREET VIEW FROM A TEMPORARY HOME, OLEKSANDRIYA SHELTERING IN THE METRO, KHARKIV

TEMPORARY HOME IN A DORM ROOM IN OLEKSANDRIYA 6 MARCH 2022

Sketching at school in Delaware

THE LOCATION WAS ARCHMERE ACADEMY IN CLAYMONT, DELAWARE – THE ALMA MATER OF PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN! – AND THE AIM WAS TO INTRODUCE 12 ILLUSTRATION STUDENTS TO THE JOYS OF URBAN SKETCHING ON THEIR CAMPUS OVER FOUR DAYS. BY ART TEACHER RACHEL VAN WYLEN

WHERE: Students drew the main academic building (St. Norbert’s Hall), the historic home where our administrative offices are located (The Patio), the art building (The Manor), the counseling office in the Student Life Center, and the fishpond. They were working during the academic day while students and faculty were walking around, so it became a very communal experience with lots of folks stopping to see how the work was going. The students that participated were Jane Chen, Michael Citrino, Karol Diaz, Megan Foster, Bella Maceda, Maggie Shelton, Reid Shields, Ava Soscia, Sydney Vakili, Sam Wahl, Carrie Wiig, and Kaia Yalamanchili.

HOW: Students were allowed to go anywhere on campus, and they were challenged to create four black and white pen drawings on location from direct observation. They had four class periods in which to do this, so the idea was to make one drawing per day. Later on, they chose their best piece and added watercolor washes to that drawing.

WHY: These students are all in my illustration class, and they are learning about leaning into the process of making art instead of becoming unduly focused on one particular outcome. Part of the reason I had them make four pen drawings and only add watercolor to one of them was that I wanted them to avoid becoming too precious about any one sketch. By focusing on making multiple iterations, we were able to stay in the moment, without the anxiety of thinking any one particular drawing had to turn out just perfect.

WHAT WORKED: We had really nice weather every day, which was especially important because one of our participants is in a wheelchair, and it is hard to push the wheelchair around the campus when the cobbled streets are wet from the rain. Using Faber Castell PITT artist pens also worked well, because they are waterproof so you can do the watercolor over the pen, without the pen bleeding. This allowed us to do the drawings from direct observation and then add the watercolor washes later. Another thing that worked well was that we spent a whole day just practicing making watercolor washes, so by the time students were adding the watercolor washes to their paintings, they were feeling pretty confident in their skills.

CHALLENGES: It would have been fun to drive up to Philadelphia and have a truly urban experience, but our class periods are not quite long enough to make that a real possibility.

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BELLA MACEDA

“I thought it was nice to get out of the classroom and take time to look at something. Even though we didn’t have to capture every detail, it was just nice to try to focus on having the audience see something the way I saw it.”

Bella Maceda

REID SHIELDS

CARRIE WIIG

“It was a very fun and relaxed experience because there wasn’t a lot of pressure to make it detailed and accurate”