Don’t Close Your Eyes
by Hanna Melnyczuk
Don't Close Your Eyes, a collection of Hanna Melnyczuk's drawings created during Russia's war on Ukraine, attempts to process what is happening to the country her parents left in 1945. Influenced by her work on children's books, these drawings convey events through colored pencil and watercolor. Melnyczuk draws as a way to understand the unfathomable acts of war, and images that line her mind unfurl onto paper. When the people plead "close the sky!" her work closes the sky with needle and thread. The destruction of buildings and bricks begin to reveal the bodies beneath. These drawings bring to the fore the death and horror of war through the filter of time and distance, expressing the emotions of one viewing the war from afar, depicting what can only be seen in the mind's eye. Proceeds of this book will be donated to the war and recovery efforts.
“The pen is mightier than the sword, it’s said, but … books about Russia’s war on Ukraine portray something mightier still: hope. Hope that binds Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in a common defense. Hope that art and culture can defeat brutality and hatred. Hope that children will again see a time when spring heralds blooming flowers after a hard winter, not a time when tanks roll because ice and snow have finally retreated.
-Preston Gralla, The Arts Fuse
Hanna Melnyczuk
Hanna Melnyczuk received an MFA from Mass College of Art. Her work has appeared at Art Space in Maynard, MA, University of Massachusetts Lowell Mahoney Gallery, The Gallery at the Piano Factory, the Danforth Museum, Tufts Gallery, Brush Gallery, Fountain Street Gallery, New Art Center, and more. She has curated two art exhibits: Agni Magazine of Emerging Artists (published by Agni Press as Agni 37: Standing on the Verge: Emerging Poets & Artists alongside poetry curated by Joseph Lease and Thomas Sayers Ellis); the other, a travelling exhibit of Ukrainian artists’ works, Don’t Close Your Eyes, responding to the current war. Hanna teaches Drawing and 2D Design at University of Massachusetts Lowell, and lives in Groton with her husband Joseph, her daughter Lara, and their cat Tello. This is her first book. You can see more of her work at www.hannamelnyczuk.com
