All money for the front. The blind artist from Donbass writes paintings by touch: for the sake of the Armed Forces and Victory
And if you do the same thing, but with your eyes closed in the dark room? Is this possible? Volodymyr Yanitsky, a self-taught artist from Kurakhov (frontier city in Donetsk region) proves that it is possible. The man has extremely weak vision, but he writes and sells his paintings, and the whole revenue sends to the help of the Armed Forces. Vladimir Yanitsky has a congenital pathology. During his life, the man underwent more than 20 operations in his eyes.
"The doctors gave me predictions that I would almost completely dazzle for up to 40 years," Vladimir says. I had to choose a profession in which vision is not the main. Thus, Yanitsky became a massage a rehabilitologist. However, the passion for painting, which originated from Vladimir since childhood, has not gone anywhere. "The canvases were very expensive, and I saved: I took linen sheets, pulled them, grounded them and turned out well. So I wrote the first paintings," says the artist.
At the age of 18, Yanitsky even tried to join the art school in Donetsk, but did not happen. "I took my sketches, showed at the school, and I was told that they needed such people. Then I asked, and what I needed to take in the exam? I was answered that I needed to draw a capitol (the top of the column - ed. ) On the school building. I went out, looked at the columns - I do not see anything. And I went home. Yes, I'm a self -taught, and I am proud of it, " - says Yanitsky.
All his life, Vladimir lived in Kurakhov: he worked as a massage therapist, opened a furniture workshop and did not stop writing paintings. But the war that came to the Donbas in 2014 changed its priorities. "All the money I made then, I gave to the military. The large -scale invasion of Russia has changed again. "On the night of February 24 I had insomnia. I sat with my phone in my hands, and my wife woke up and asks," Why didn't you sleep? Yanitsky.
When it became a "hot" in the frontline Kurakhov, Vladimir and his wife decided that they needed to be evacuated. "The doors with the windows in the house were already open from the explosive wave. 'Let's return, - emphasizes Volodymyr Yanitsky. But how to leave dozens of paintings that appeared in 30 years of creativity? "We were going five adults in a car. Will you take a lot of things? The bottom of the trunk, and so we went, " - Yanitsky shares.
The artist was evacuated to Volyn and, despite the status of a person with a disability, went to the military enlistment office. "Due to stress, my feet were denied, I practically lay down. As soon as I started to walk on the crutches, so that no one had unnecessary questions (because I am big, 2 meters in height), gathered and went to the military enlistment office," Yanitsky recalls . The military enlistment office Vladimir, of course, was refused.
"And then I made a decision: once I cannot help the army directly, then I will help at the art front," says the artist. "I still had aortic aneurysm. If we say in simple way, it means that I need to cut and put half of my heart prosthesis. Mortality is very high. I was given a couple of months. Doctors predict that the heart will in any case break. The surgery is needed money. But I decided this: when the war is over, if I live, I will definitely do something. I can at least a penny help, I will do it.
" Volodymyr Yanitsky has already conducted several personal exhibitions in the west of Ukraine, and the proceedings from the sale of paintings sent to the help of the Armed Forces. In addition, the man teaches painting of children whose parents are fighting on the front. "You do not imagine how nice it is for children to draw greetings, postcards, and then children send them to their parents!" - the artist shares. The artist confesses that the Great War has changed the theme of his canvases.
"Drawing naked nature is inappropriate now. Therefore, I write what is in the soul that hurts. For example, I have a picture called" Where it Thunderstorms, where it burns ", which depicts sunflowers. Why is the name for sunflowers? The fact is that our Donetsk region is associated with the sunflowers, because he who was in the Donbass knows that the fields were always planted with sunflowers. This is a symbol of our region.
In which the central image belongs to the woman, it is a symbol of Ukraine in general - a woman. But, however, the image of the Cossack can not be born . . . I have a picture called "Code of the Nation": a towel, and on it are cartridges. This is what is now that now It happens: despite the fact that we can make beauty as a towel, we can also charge cartridges and shot the one who encroaches on us, " - assures Vladimir Yanitsky.
But how do you write paintings almost blind? The artist assures that he is based on congenital feelings and feelings. "Probably, this is some intuition. For example, I choose paints intuitively, they can be felt, because they are different in density, structure. Therefore, many paintings write with my hands, without hands. I draw people that people do not lower their hands in a difficult situation. Show that if I, a blind man, I can do it, then a person with his hands, head, can do everything! .
The artist does not think about the victory in the categories of distant perspective. "Let's remember 2014. Have many of us, for example, in the Donbass - real Ukrainians? People were not clear where they looked. And now people have rallied. So we have already won," Vladimir Yanitsky sums up. You can learn more about the rehabilitation of warriors and war in Ukraine, as well as assistance to Ukrainians who have received asylum in Germany on the Enableme Ukraine website.