I am extremely sensitive to another humans. In sense of I always seek the essence, see another’s truth. I find my power in people. Especially in peoples’ art. When something is so genuine that you don’t need to read biography, their story is written all over their art. I don’t know it it is necessarily connected to my cultural background and Ukranian poetry that is deeply connected to protection of our identity due to countless times to take it away from us throughout history, but at least for me, suffering is the best feeling to process. It is so multi-dimentional that you have to watch out closely in order not to lose yourself in it. Art is real when I feel. I want to take a look in the ones soul.
Based on my preception of art, i will shortly introduce you to people which lifes contributed in my understanding of the world.
I am extremely sensitive to other humans. I am always seeking their essence, their truth. I find my strength in people and especially in their art. I believe that when something is genuine, you don’t need a biography to understand. Their story is already written all over their creation.
Maybe this comes from my cultural background, from Ukrainian poetry, which has always been tied to protecting identity in the face of countless attempts to erase it. For me, pain is the deepest feeling to process. It is multi-dimensional, overwhelming, and dangerous if you don’t look closely enough. But it is also the most fertile ground for truth.
Art is real when I feel it. When it allows me to glimpse another soul.
Based on my perception of art, I want to introduce you to people whose lives have contributed to my understanding of the world. People that shaped me.
Nina Simone.
As much as I am passionate in music I am deeply interested in sociology. Speaking up about and debating about what’s wrong, be the voice of people in need, contributing to society and making a statement. Loud and clear. There is one quote that permanently stayed with me – Archbishop Desmond Tutu famously said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” I believe that’s exactly what Nina stood by as a civil right activist and an artist.
As much as I am passionate about music, I am equally drawn to sociology. To me, they are inseparable. Both are about people, about society, about truth. I believe in speaking up, debating what is wrong, being a voice for those in need, and making a statement. Loud and clear.
There is one quote that has permanently stayed with me. Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said:
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
I believe this is exactly what Nina Simone stood for both as a civil rights activist and as an artist.
Her life story reflects this idea as Nina was rejected from the Curtis Institute of Music because of racial discrimination, despite her talent. She turned that pain into power, using her music to challenge oppression. She proved that art can be as resistant as it is beautiful.
What I love most about her soul is her sensitivity to inner debates, to pain, to the raw human experience. In the video I pinned above, there is a moment at 2:30 that made me fall in love with her.
“Feelings, I swear I’ve all my life I feel it, oh Lord
I wish I never lived this long
I hope this feeling never comes again
Feelings
Feelings like I’ve never lost you
And feelings like I never really had you
Here in my arms.”“Goddamn, and you know what -oughta shame to have to write a song like that…Hm.
I do not believe the conditions that produced a situation that demanded a song like that.”
Once I find myself in somebody’s art like that, it permanently stains my heart…even just revisiting that exact timecode made me cry.
What an incredible ability, huh? To make people feel so deeply, to touch them at their core. That is the essence of art.
Frida Kahlo.
Frida. Her life was never easy, even from the beginning. She struggled with poor health throughout her childhood, but it never broke her spirit. She went on to study at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City, where only thirty-five women were enrolled at the time. Beyond that, she was politically progressive and unafraid to challenge norms. I perceive her as a fighter.. brave, passionate, and defiant. Something I want to define myself as.
“I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best”.
Her life was filled with physical pain caused by tragic circumstances, but that pain became the reason she began to paint. Stuck in bed, unable to walk, she picked up a brush. Through painting, she perceived herself, pouring her worries and inner debates into color and form.
One of her most powerful works,”The Two Fridas”, was created after her first divorce from Diego Rivera. In her diary, she admitted it expressed her desperation and loneliness after the separation from Diego. Two Fridas side by side, one broken and exposed, the other clinging to love that still bleeds. .
Frida once wrote that she “sees with the heart,” and that resonates deeply with me. There is an extremely thin barrier between the outside world and our inner perception… a space I believe she would have agreed exists. That’s where something magical happens.
Personally, I feel that I think, therefore I feel. Behind every idea, every creation, there lies an intensely personal relationship between the artist and their heart. Art is never what we see; it is what the artist carries within, laid bare for those willing to feel it.
I think what I like the most about both of them is how strong they are. How certain they are in their vision and convictions, and how unafraid they are to feel so deeply. It was never a weakness.
No matter they say
No matter what they compose or do
No matter what the drugs may do or songs made to
Oh, people, they do
Or machines will do to you
I will always have my feelings
Nothing can be destroy that 'cause I know that that is all that is a base
For you!