meditations from the roads

Wodeman, Meditations From the Roads. Episode 5: Repose, 2023. Oil on canvas, 120 x 80 cm

I started painting 'Meditations From the Roads' in the summer of 2023, one year and a few months after February 24, 2022, when a full-scale military invasion awakened people all over Ukraine and shocked millions around the world.

In early March 2022, my wife and kids left Kyiv to find a safer place. From then until their full return home in late summer 2023, my life was split into two states: when I was home alone, and when I was with loved ones but away from home—and everything in between.

The ‘everything in between’ were my feelings and thoughts when I was driving to meet with family or was driving away from them…back to our home in Kyiv. A typical one-way drive was anywhere between 600

to over 1000 kilometers. Lots of time to think about things, people, relationships, life, love…and new ideas.

Even more time on return trips anticipating lonely evenings until the next meeting was agreed upon and close enough to stop enjoying the tall cocktails of sadness mixed with hope and shots of joy mixed with longing to be on the road again soon.

Wodeman, Meditations From the Roads, Episode 2: Look at Me, Image #2, 2023. Mixed technique: oil pastel on paper, photography, digital editing.

Roads…It was one of those trips when I thought – how much do we overlook them?

We're on the roads all the time, we look at them, stare at them for hours but we hardly ever really 'see' them. So, I tried…

Each road looked similar but each had its face, rhythm, color, and story to tell — even if it was my own story, which I told to myself while thinking of the people I love, the ones I was rushing to meet, or those I had to leave behind.

Meditations From the Roads. Episode 3: Is There Still Hope?, 2023. Oil on canvas, 100 x 150 cm

For a year, it was an inner search not fully understanding what was happening but trying to cope with feeling apart from everything. Then came an idea that I thought I couldn't express in writing, so the only available option was to try to express it in painting.

I don’t know whether these paintings capture my feelings from that strange stormy year or if they foreshadow dreams that are still to unfold, but painting them has been a true lifesaver, helping me to keep going and keep hoping…

Wodeman, Meditations From the Roads, Episode 2: Look at Me, Image #3, 2023. Mixed technique: oil pastel on paper, photography, digital editing.

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