Original artwork description:

Any criminal regime rules by force, fear and lies. Citizens who try to protest are arrested. But even though the government controls information, and the secret police are always present, there are brave persons, who act with moral courage to show that truth and the human spirit are greater than the state’s power to suppress.

Alexei Navalny is one such person. For nearly ten years, he has been an activist against corruption and political oppression in Russia. On August 20, 2020, he was poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent, which was detected after he was flown for medical treatment to Germany, at his family’s request. This was reported in a December 23, 2020 article in “The Lancet”, a medical journal. When Navalny was well enough to return to Russia, he was promptly arrested on trumped up charges and sent to the Vladimir Oblast Corrective Labor Colony, where his sentence has been extended by a regime that is too afraid to release him. It is with deep sadness that, as of February 16, 2024, we now mourn the death of this great man, whose life now stands as a testament and a legacy, which I hope and pray will inspire people throughout the world—but especially the Russian people, for whom he is a martyr. May the Russian people find the moral courage to live and act in ways that will reflect all that is best in humanity, as Alexei did.

Marina Ovsyannikova is another hero. She is a Russian journalist who worked for Channel One. On 03-14-22, Marina had the moral courage to walk onto a live broadcast of the evening news, and she was holding a sign that said, “No war, stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here.” For less than ten seconds, her message was broadcast to the nation. She was arrested and interrogated for 14 hours before she was fined, fired from her job, and released from custody.

This pair of oil and cold wax paintings are a tribute to Alexei’s and Marina’s moral courage, which is an inspiration to people throughout the world. These paintings have been given a satin varnish for protection, and hanging hardware is already installed.

Materials used:

oil and cold wax over collage, mounted on canvas

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