Colin Dodd • “Homage to Ukraine”

“It’s the artist’s duty to reflect the times in which we live.” – Nina Simone.

This quote struck a chord with me, especially due to personal circumstances. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, 2022 and by coincidence that was the day I had open heart surgery, following a heart attack on February 22nd!  I watched the footage on CNN of Russian tanks firing on civilian targets from my hospital bed.  I have since followed the war on an almost daily basis, strongly identifying with the cause of the Ukrainian people, and seeing in them a nation standing alone against a tyrant just as Britain did against Hitler’s Germany at the outset of World War II.  Ukraine has managed to survive, against all the odds, for four years.

The imagery from FPV drone footage I found strangely alluring and fascinating, even beautiful, although the results and intended consequences were destruction and death.  This dichotomy is what led me to start painting images based on often distorted and grainy images, abstracted to a degree, by the process of recording and transmission.  This resulted in a twenty panel work resembling a bank of monitors, titled “Homage to Ukraine: Big Bavovna.”   In addition, a triptych dedicated to Ukraine consists of a portrait of a young Ukrainian woman wearing a traditional flower crown, titled “Flower of Ukraine.”  An image of trench warfare reminiscent of images from the First World War and I borrowed the title “We Are Making a New World” from Paul Nash who was an official war artist in both world wars.  Lastly, an image derived from a video taken in 2023 in the Donetsk region, of a Russian ammo dump explosion, which became known as, “Ammo Dump Jesus.”

As the war has progressed it seems like it has been largely forgotten about by the news cycle which moves on unrelentingly, but the struggle and the suffering continues for the Ukrainian people.