Original artwork description:

ABOUT THE ARTWORK
The painting "I will lead you to the light" from the “Inner Garden Series” embodies the journey of guidance and hope in times of uncertainty. It is a reflection on the role of inner strength and intuition as beacons that illuminate the path forward, even when the surrounding world feels overwhelming or chaotic.

At its core, the painting symbolizes the act of trust—both in oneself and in the process of transformation. The central figure serves as a guide, offering a sense of direction and purpose amidst a complex and ever-changing environment. It represents the idea that light is not always external but often resides within, waiting to be uncovered and shared with others.

This work also explores the dynamic between vulnerability and resilience. The journey to the light is not without challenges, but it is through embracing these challenges and staying connected to one’s inner truth that growth and clarity emerge. The painting encourages viewers to follow their own light, trusting that even in the darkest of times, there is a way forward.

Ultimately, the piece is an invitation to step into the unknown with courage and hope, knowing that the light—whether found within oneself or guided by another—is always present to lead the way.


Inner Garden Series

Daria explores the possibility of self-identification of a person from fragments of cultures and concepts, her works actualize the thirst for the integrity of the individual in the ever-changing cycle of ideas and meanings. The artist asks about the possibility of being an integral person in the metamodern era, characterized by oscillation between polar concepts and rethinking of fundamental ideas of the past. Her work is an inner response to the question of what integrality is and whether there is a need to strive for certain ideals.

Her work is also an external response to the totalitarian concepts that still exist in society. Concepts that are imposed from above require a false integrity, namely a certain ideology, and persecute everything that goes beyond these concepts. Born at the crossroads of Ukrainian and Russian cultures during the collapse of the Soviet Union, Daria manifests the norm of fragmentation as the norm, replacing the demands of integrity with the idea of accepting otherness as unconditional beauty. Her characters build their own world in which culture has not become a dictatorship - the world that Daria considers her home.

Here is what Daria herself says about her works

I draw hybrid creatures and symbols of an anthropomorphic world because I feel like a hybrid of cultures and identities. I desire wholeness, I love to see it in others, but I feel fragmented in myself. My paintings are my way of coming to terms with my own fragmented identity, and my way of showing that the beautiful does not always have to fit into an already existing framework.

Materials used:

Acrylic

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