“SpilnoART” is a project that opened up new horizons of creativity.
Twenty talented artists, designers, writers, journalists, and representatives from different parts of Ukraine became the winners of the competition that preceded the beginning of “SpilnoART,” and I was among them. We created a concept of an illustrated short prose anthology on the literary and artistic residence in Yaremche in the spring of 2019.
The curator of the residence was Roman Kabachy, a historian and publicist. Here is what he said about this residence:
“We tried to make the program so that every day was special, different from the previous, and made new impressions. And it worked, and despite the upcoming events, the constant flow of new information, “full employment,” and the urgency of self-discipline and self-organization for residents, it was exciting and useful for them to work and be creative together. The residence was organized by the Roma Program of the International Renaissance Foundation.”
Planning work at the place of residence, the organizers sought to create space for the collaborative creative process of writers and artists of Ukrainian and Roma ancestry, as well as representatives of other European groups. They sought to create a free space for self-reflection and self-presentation so that the participants could exchange experiences, improve their professional skills, and gain new knowledge by learning from the masters of their craft.
And they had done that. The writers not only worked on the concept of the future anthology but tried themselves in painting. And the artists — except for their work with sketches — also experimented with developing an idea in a story. One of these stories, created by the team at the literary workshop, is included in our anthology.
That time, many years later, after forgetting my childhood hobby, I again felt how much I like to draw. Although many of us did not have practice enough, we enjoyed working with paints and crayons.
It was nice that my coaching skills were useful on the concept developing. When many creative people were gathered they tried go somewhere far from the goal. Sometimes they forgot about important details those should be included on the stages of discussion a book idea and later.
After a week spent in Yaremche, and master classes of writers and artists, there was an atmosphere of inspiration and creativity that had survived a long time behind the event.
The result of working on the literary and artistic residence “SpilnoART” was the book «Шлях до ромів» (“A way to Romas”) published in 2020. It includes 19 prose texts about presence in a multicultural society, cohesion, mutual respect, and tolerance. The authors of the anthology were high Ukrainian writers, translators, poets, journalists, public figures, as well as novice authors:
Andrey Lyubka, Andriy (Bandy) Sholtes, Karina Sunlife, Lyubov Yakimchuk, Mykola Burmek-Dyuri, Lyubov Eremicheva, Alena Kazanskaya, Rostyslav Kuzik, Elena Marchuk, Petr Rusanenko, Lyuba-Paraskeviia Strinadyuk, Andrey Tuzhikov, Ekaterina Gladkaya, Olga Matso, Eva Rayskaya. Anastasia Kholyavko, Lyubov Baz and Irena Yanitsko.
Their texts completed the illustrations by artists: Tiberiy Jonas, Elena Gavrishchuk, Natalia (NONA), Zhuravchak, and Tatiana Litvin. The literary editor of the publication had selected Marianna Kiyanovskaya, a Ukrainian writer, literary critic, and translator. Yuri Barabash and Ilya Strongovsky worked on the book design, and Oksana Vaskov on the layout.
For this book, I wrote a fiction story based on the biography of Tiberiy Jonas, a famous Transcarpathian artist who participated in the residence. I liked his picture, painted there in Yaremche, and then — the story of his professional development as an artist. This story was noticed in a book review
A short fragment of my story is included in our anthology; you might read it below. (The original text and the English translation by Karina Sunlife)
What does it mean “to celebrate Life”?
“You do this well. Please linger after classes”. — The voice that sounded unexpectedly made Tibi flinch. A ten-year-old boy carefully drew flames by smears on the paper a second ago. He saw the fire and the tent so clearly that he forgot where he was.
The boy raised his head and met with the teacher by eyes. “Why does she always come up behind and scare me? Now it’s necessary to remain for an unknown reason, and there the guys are waiting to play with the ball,” — he thought with sadness and said aloud: “Okay.”
Tibi ran from the school, hurried home, and the conversation with the teacher continued in his mind: “Your drawings stand out among others. You have a talent that will open you a big way in life. I will talk with your parents in order to they allow you to go for extra painting classes, but you will have to study diligently.” Am I really talented? Yes, I will study, if only parents would agree…”
* * *
Tibi’s gaze focused on the visitor viewing his favorite painting. And his memory was changing moments as a movie, a series of years of studying at an art school, college, and the first exhibition of his own pictures. But all these could not be done without that teacher, as the woman is so similar to who is standing in the gallery now. A hash of champagne clap and enthusiastic voices from the next room brought him back to the present time. He must go; friends gathered to congratulate him on holiday and wait.“What is she doing here?” Tibi thought after a couple of days when he entered the workshop and froze in surprise. The strange woman from the gallery was near the unfinished picture.
You can see one of his paintings on the back cover of our illustrated anthology of short prose by Ukrainian authors. Unfortunately, it is impossible to take high-quality photos since the book is in Ukraine now.
For several years, Tiberiy Jonas has not only been painting but also teaching at the art school he created for Roma children. His school uses the business model of social entrepreneurship, and Tiberius, along with his paintings, presents the works of young artists at exhibitions in our country.
