Ukraine: The Unfortunate Bride
Oil · 2015 547 views
Where ever crime against humanity been committed around the world, finger prints of these two “World super power” could be easily detected. Since world war2, USA and Russia have engaged in the battle of supremacy; too scared of each other’s shadows, they are using other nations to fight each other. They broke Germany into East and West Germany before Germany reunification. They used Vietnam War to fight each other, and broke up Korean into North Korea and South Korea. America led war against Iraq in chase of ever elusive weapon of Mass destruction and gave birth to ruinous evil Islamic State, Russian gives Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad licence-to-kill by stopping UN in taking action against Syrian leader for his action of genocide against his own people. The West led by America enticed Ukraine with the offer of financial aid and Russia will not give up Ukraine to the West without a fight. This led to ongoing war in Ukraine which inspired me to do this painting “Ukraine-The Unfortunate Bride” I chose the image of Yulia Tymoshenko to represent the country of Ukraine and dressed her up as Ukrainian Bride between two warring suitors – President Obama and President Putin. On the right of the painting, President Obama kneeling and proposing to Ukraine- the Bride with engagement ring in his right hand while holding Yulia (Ukraine) hand with his left hand. The left arm of Yulia was ripped off from her body by Putin. The ripped off arm is Crimea and other part of Ukraine that was broken away by Pro-Russian Separatists with the help of Russia. I put arm band of the old USSR on Putin’s arm to reveal Putin’s mindset which is to regain lost glory of the old USSR by taking back all the countries that used to be under USSR. In the middle ground of the painting are the powerless UN officials that could do nothing than shooting “mouth missiles” and “rhetoric rockets” to Russia for tearing apart Ukraine while the people of Ukraine are being slaughtered. To have peace in the world, America and Russia have to stop meddling in other countries affairs.
Like some of the old art masters Delacroix and Goya that spoke about social and political upheavals of their time in their works, O. Yemi uses some of his paintings to express himself about on-going political and social issues around the world. “A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art” so said Paul Cezanne; O. Yemi was deeply moved by the horrors of wars and the plight of immigrants drowning in the sea to pick up his brushes again. His first political painting was “ARAB REVOLUTION” influenced by Arab Spring that started in 2012. “THE EAGLE HAS LANDED” was done to speak about American led war on terror. His painting -“KABIYESI OBA OBAMA (Unquestionable King Obama)” was a political satire based on the love and hate relationship between President Obama and Donald Trump. “THE BLEEDING ROSE” was done in solidarity with Christians beheaded by ISIS in Iraq and Syria. “Hunger in the Land of Plenty” and “OIL: AFRICANS’ WEALTH and WOE” were about poverty and exploitation of African people. He also used his painting – “UKRINE: THE UNFORTUNATE BRIDE” to speak about how America and Russia influenced the war in Ukraine. “THE FISHERS OF MEN” was about immigrants drowning in the sea. When O. Yemi works on portrait paintings, he desires his portrait paintings to be uniquely creative. He often uses the paintings to tell stories about his subjects. In one of his commissioned paintings “Josanne of Trinidad”, he blended the images of the parents at the top background cloud and the main subject below the images of her parents. This is to indicate that the parents are in heaven looking down on Josanne. He often uses his subjects’ professions to create their paintings. He used artist materials to create his painting “PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST” and image of violin for the portrait of “THE VIOLINIST” He used books and flowing letters to create the portrait of Professor Wole Soyinka, 1986 Nobel Prize Winner in Literature in painting “SOYINKA: AN AFRICAN LITERARY ICON” O. Yemi has widely exhibited his works around the world in group and solo exhibitions. His works had featured in exhibitions in Bogota, Colombia; Vancouver, Canada; UN exhibition, Milan, Italy; Tokyo, Japan; USA and in many cities across the United Kingdom. O. Yemi has received many awards for his works across the world; his works have also been published in many art magazines and contemporary arts books. He is a member of the Fine Art America, the Society of All Artists, AERA –the Association Embracing Realistic Art and WCA- World Citizen Artists. O. Yemi paintings and awards can be seen on his website: www.o-yemi-tubi.pixels.com
