This painting is from the series "Dead Birds". It was created on the occasion of the war in Ukraine and it is dedicated to the Ukrainian children. Children are innocent victims of war. They cannot understand why their neighbors have suddenly become enemies.
For years I have been dealing with the subject of the child in my artwork. I paint children's portraits in an unconventional way by placing them in a new context and linking the portrait with fragments of feelings and memories.
The child portrait in my paintings is not to be seen in isolation, but always as part of a complex overall picture. The child's gaze takes us into its inner universe of thoughts and feelings.
In the series "Dead Birds" it was the themes of war, fear and loss that preoccupied me finding expression in this picture. In each child portrait I try to capture the individual expression of one child, in the moment when it is completely in his inner world. I want to move people to engage with the image reflecting their own soul asking questions about themselves and the world. As an artist, I take responsibility of making things visible people don't like to see. Because "Truth is reasonable to man" (Ingeborg Bachmann's speech from 1959). The painting shows two figures with drawn, printed and painted image elements. The child portrait is found in a pictorial space in which a dead bird dissolves. In contrast to the traditional child portrait, I put it in a new context. The painting shows the child looking at its empty hands, referring to dwindling life. The dead bird reflects the pain of war.
The graphic, linear style of representation creates a certain lightness in the image, despite the gravity of the subject, giving the child and all of us hope for the future.
The sketchy drawing offers the possibility of highlighting and emphasizing things. Especially the impressing gestures of hands are playing an important role in my paintings. In order to accentuate the hands I draw them in red color.
