'To Ukraine': NSB artist presents artbook project to officials at Ukrainian Embassy

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — When Elodie Richard wrote to the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C., offering to present her year-long artbook project, “To Ukraine – A War Journal,” she couldn’t have hoped for a better response.

Richard, a French national and New Smyrna Beach resident since 2016, was invited last month to the embassy where she presented officials with two copies of her artbook; she gave one personally to the embassy’s first secretary, Kateryna Smagliy, and another to be delivered, along with a letter, to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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In that letter, which Richard hopes one day makes it to the Ukrainian leader along with the copy of her project, she wrote that the 33 illustrations are meant to “express ideas and initiate reflection in the viewer about humanity and solidarity during war, how people can reveal the worse version or the best one of themselves.”

“This is my humble artistic attempt to honour (sic) you and your country’s strength, courage and determination to fight for your freedom and democracy,” Richard wrote. “Whatever country or nationality one has, we should all mirror this war against any rise of totalitarian ideas, totalitarian governments or any rise of extremisms based on color of skin, race culture, gender or religion.”

The very first illustration in the artbook, titled "The Bird of Peace," was inspired by a 2014 incident in which Pope Francis released white doves in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican in solidarity to Ukraine as Russia invaded Crimea. The doves were immediately attacked by crows and seagulls, but managed to survive.

“It was like a bad omen,” Richard said. “And that’s how I start the book, because it is a reminder that the conflict didn’t really start in February of 2022, but it’s a long-time thing.”

During the United Nations Security Council meeting Jan. 13, American diplomat and Under Secretary Gen. Rosemary DiCarlo said 6,952 civilians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and that the numbers “are likely considerably higher.”

Social realism influence and art education

Daughter of two “creative parents,” Richard followed her family’s artistic vein and has been painting and drawing for decades. With Polish and Russian roots, she drew inspiration from her own family history in World War II as well as from the news coverage of the war in Ukraine to make her project.

Each of the 33 drawings took Richard two weeks to finish; however, deciding what to illustrate was often the most difficult part of the process, given the complexity and the several political and social aspects of the war.

Richard attended the Ecole du Louvre, an art school run by the Louvre Museum in Paris, where she studied art history and archeology. But her techniques, she said, are self-taught.

“I learned by copying ancient masters, paintings that I liked, drawings that I liked,” Richard said. “Later on, when I was 17, I started to be more independent with my influences. Now I’m 47, so I have my own life path with art.”

Her influences these days are connected to social realism art and graphism (the expression of thought in material symbols).

“It had a big impact on how I visualize my paintings, and the importance of graphism in my style,” Richard said. “I like simplicity, but visually simplicity is something difficult to reach.”

She added: “In the book, with the illustrations, none of my characters have faces really. What was important for me was more the attitude of the characters and what they are doing, the movements and gestures that suggest something important related to the war.”

Expressing the 'stupidity of war'

In the second drawing, Richard illustrates a faceless Russian President Vladimir Putin, apparently wearing the Kremlin as a crown with planet Earth in the background.

“He is very alone, sitting on a throne on the table,” Richard explained. “The feet of the table are made of crosses of people who died because of him.”

In another, titled "Fallen for Ukraine," Richard references the Wall of Remembrance, located in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, which pays homage to those who have fought to defend the country since 2014.

“The two characters at the bottom of the drawing are embroidered,” Richard said. “I took the motif from a shirt that Zelensky wore where there is this couple holding hands. It’s a way to represent him in the drawing without him being there physically.”

It was “very emotional” for her, she said, to realize how her own family’s history of dealing with the German invasion of Poland during World War II parallels the Ukrainian people’s ordeal today.

“I wanted to give my own interpretation on the stupidity of war,” she said. “And I also wanted to express the courage of the Ukrainian people.”

In an email to The News-Journal, Smagliy said that Richard and her “art make an important contribution to our victory.”

“Just as Ukrainian artists, she is also fighting at the frontlines in defense of democracy, humanity and freedom,” Smagliy said. “We appreciate all support that Americans from different walks of life demonstrate to Ukraine and its people during the times of this cruel and unjustifiable war.”

Richard is looking for a publisher not only to help her continue her artistic career, but also to help Ukrainian families affected by the conflict by donating a percentage of the sales.

“My goal is that people will purchase one of the limited series prints of the book, and they will want to hang that in their living rooms,” Richard said. “They have to be proud that they participated, the people who purchase the book, that they helped Ukraine.”

The 33 drawings can be viewed and purchased through Richard’s personal website at elodierichard.com under the "Identity at War" tab.

“I just wanted to do something with my heart and my art to hopefully help the Ukrainian families,” Richard said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NSB artist presents Ukrainian war art project at embassy in D.C.