In the fourth year of war, nights have become heavier than days. She sits in silence across from a black cat — her sole confidant, keeper of fears, hopes, and unspoken confessions. Their gaze is a dialogue beyond words, woven from trust and quiet understanding. Outside, darkness is hostile, pierced by distant echoes of sirens and explosions. Inside, it changes its nature — no longer a threat, but a gentle cloak, shielding her from the chaos beyond the walls. In this shared stillness, the cat listens without judgment, and she finds a rare moment of peace amid the unending turmoil.

“The Whisperer of Shadows”

“Children Born in War” is both a personal and a collective narrative about Ukrainian childhood that begins its life to the sound of air-raid sirens.

The project emerged with the birth of my granddaughter, who entered the world at a time when our country lived in a constant state of alert. For almost a year, I could not bring myself to create her portraits — it felt like intruding into the fragile silence where small children learn to exist between explosions. With time, I realized that this silence is precisely where resilience is born.

These textile portraits are my way of “gathering with threads the fragments of a broken life,” restoring presence where war tries to erase it. The child’s face is not only a portrait of my granddaughter; it is a symbolic image of an entire generation that did not choose war yet already knows how to live in spite of it. Embroidery becomes more than a technique — it is a meditation, a way of speaking about what defies language: fear, trembling hope, and the fragile beauty of everyday survival.

The project grows together with the child. Each new portrait becomes a document of time, an inner diary, a testimony to how light continues to be born even in the darkest eras.

It is a story about love that withstands destruction.

A story about Ukraine holding on — for its children.

Add

Olesya Sakhro

Opportunities

For Artists

ArtConnect

Support