chunks of flommus
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xix. yarilo

A lifetime ago, I spent the better part of a decade working for a bank in a culturally Slavic neighborhood in Sacramento.

To call it a bank is generous.

It was a beige windowless cell in a chain grocery store we all shared.

We laughed off these crestfallen days like soldiers … passing cups of Keurig Coffee like cigarettes.

Many long boring Sundays gave way to long discussions about life.

I remember hearing difficult, but rounded and real understandings of life under the USSR.

I also came to see how often the Ukrainian and Russian people comfortably coexisted (but not always), and how many times to me, the two cultures felt interchangeable.

I was the fish out of water.

We had differences, some were so polarized, it may have even been uncomfortable to be friends outside of a work environment.

But it was the thread of necessity that kept us together, and our shared experience that created mutual respect and fondness.

I’m honored to place the memory of my friends and these lessons of coexistence in the permanent canon of my art.

I’ve created a mixed media print for FUCK WAR WORLDWIDE, an art showcase curated by jm knudsen.

Yarilo is my prayer for the people directly affected by this war.

That we can all once again live, dream and grow – carefree, under the light of the sun.

FUCK WAR is up for around the next month at The Trade Coffee & Coworking on K in Sacramento.

100% of all art in the show goes toward humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

Following the show, i will be selling everything related to this piece (The NFT original, A/P, full screenprint run, and T‑Shirts) half off for the remainder of the conflict, with the hope that you will donate the difference to a cause in this conflict that you feel called to.

I will also be printing Yarilo as a shirt solely in yellow for now.