Using paint as her weapon of choice, Yana Litus drew on her own childhood memories to win an art battle.
Through her paintings, she wanted to help Ukrainians.
“Now it’s a hard time… for all Ukrainians, we all [are] missing our Ukraine, our native land.”
“This is what I wanted, to give some kindness and some warm feeling.”
Litus took part in an art battle event called “Art Battle for Ukraine” aimed at raising funds for the country.
The battle is a sport-like competition where artists face off against each other. They have 20 or 30 minutes to complete a painting live, in real time, in front of an audience. Once they are done painting, audience members can vote on which one they liked the best using an app on their phone. Whoever makes it past all the rounds, wins the competition.
Litus had wanted to take part in the competition for years but was always too intimidated to do so. After the Russian invasion, she thought about her own family still living in Ukraine, and thought she was at least going to try and help raise money.
And then she made it all the way to the top.
“I didn’t know if I could do it or not, so it was like competition for myself too,” said Litus.
The competition
Litus felt herself get into the zone for her first painting. She felt like she was in a studio, not in a room with hundreds of people around her.
“I didn’t hear any music, any people, any cameras around my head,” she said. “When you start doing art, you don’t hear anything around you.”
Since the theme was a battle for Ukraine, she wanted to paint something that reflected her childhood memories, Litus said.
She painted a landscape of an open field in a village in Ukraine where she spent her summers with her grandmother and great grandmother.
She said walking through an open field in Ukraine helped give her energy, and she painted that in her landscape.
When people look at it, they’ll be able to tell that it’s from Ukraine, Litus said.
“It can be everywhere in Ukraine…it’s close to all Ukrainians. This is what I wanted to tell by my artwork,” she said.
“Everybody who lived in Ukraine or was born there, or has relatives, they can see something close to them in the painting.”
To her surprise, the landscape painting won, and she was able to move on to the final round of the competition.
For her second painting she added in her grandmother’s house to the landscape.
“This was very close to my soul and to me,” she said.
She was only five years old when she spent her summers there. She spent time there in a garden and playing with animals. She doesn’t have a lot of memories from then, but remembers how kind her grandmothers were to her.
Litus’s grandmother is still living in Ukraine today. Her mom and stepfather live there as well. Family from her husband’s side of her family are also there.
She said she’s glad that she could take part in the event and help raise money for war relief efforts. Her paintings were sold off in a silent auction, as part of the art battle event. In total the event raised more than $45,000 for war relief efforts.
