Original artwork description:

This work is part of a personal three-piece series created in response to the war in my country. These drawings emerged during a period of creative silence — a time when I withdrew inward, avoiding words yet unable to stop the echo of thoughts that kept repeating inside.

War breaks boundaries, and I chose to express this symbolically: the line reaches the very edges of the paper, without margins — as if the conflict itself pushes beyond all limits and violates the borders that once felt safe.

“Reflection” carries the numbers 18 and 18 in its title.
These mark the two cities that shaped my life equally — Mariupol and Kharkiv — 18 years in each, two homes that I had to leave due to danger.
This piece becomes a reflection of who we were before and who we were forced to become after: our dreams, values, desires, faith — and the irreversible changes that war imprints on all of them.

In this drawing, a thin, restrained line becomes the only vibration released from an inner world shaken by fear, grief, and resistance.

There is a wish to face the world with a smile, to keep the scratches hidden on the reverse side — but they do not disappear, and the wounds continue to bleed.

This work carries a quiet breath of trauma — subtle, almost imperceptible — yet deeply personal and undeniably mine.

Materials used:

Pencil

Tags:

#paper #line art #minimalist art #symbolic art #abstract minimalism #conceptual drawing #emotional abstraction #geometric line #tetiana gryshchenko #war reflection #symbolysm #personal narrative #boundary breaking