Stefania Miroshnichenko and a piano she painted for Kelowna's Pianos in Parks project.

Image Credit: Stefania Miroshnichenko

Artist Stefania Miroshnichenko was getting ready to start a new illustration project in Kyiv when the war in Ukraine started on Feb. 24, 2022, and now she’s finding her place in Kelowna’s art scene.

“The war ruined all my plans. It was so, so brutal and so scary. I had hopes, we all had hopes that it will end soon. But after a couple of very scary events, I understood that it might take a while,” she said.

Miroshnichenko grew up in a family of artists so studying art was a natural choice.

“My mom is an artist, my aunt, my grandparents. My grandfather was a professor in university and he taught fine arts,” she said. “We painted together and then I went to art school when I was eight. So I also studied at art school and then in college and then in university.”

When the Russian invasion brought all the horrors of war to Ukraine, Miroshnichenko’s aunt offered her a place to stay in Canada and she made the unimaginable decision to flee her home with her mom.

“It was a very dark moment in my life... she contacted me and she said that we should escape from the capital because it's very dangerous because Russians really wanted to capture the capital. She convinced me and mom that we should escape. And she said that we will have a place where we can stay,” she said.

She described her arrival in Kelowna as a surreal moment, like something out of a work of fiction.

“When we came to Kelowna, to the Magic Estates neighbourhood, it's so beautiful and peaceful there. So it seemed unreal because like all that period of my life seemed unreal. It was so many events that it looked like a movie or like a dream or something like that,” she said.

“I felt relief and I felt that it's strange that at the same time in my homeland, it's war and people dying and it's dangerous. When you see a plane in the sky, it's danger. But here it's the opposite. When you see a plane in the sky, it's normal. It's just a plane.”

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Stefania Miroshnichenko painting a mural.

Image Credit: Stefania Miroshnichenko

After she arrived she decided to write a memoir called Light in the Darkness: Escaping the War in Ukraine.

“It helped a lot because I had so many emotions and memories and traumas unspoken. And like actually writing, it helped me to put everything that I had in my heart,” she said. “Everything happened so fast that I had no time to process everything. So it helped me to reflect, to process the situation.

“I wrote this book in a very sincere and genuine way as an ordinary person, as a witness of events. It's like people will walk in my shoes.”

Now that she’s in Kelowna she's involving herself in every part of the local art scene. She has displayed her art in Metro Church, painted a piano for the city’s Pianos in Parks project, she has painted murals for Ukrainian stores in Orchard Park Mall and District Mall.

She said fleeing the war in Ukraine changed her artistic style and made her want to focus on a traditional method she hadn’t painted in years.

“I started working in a Ukrainian traditional art style named Petrykivka. I used to paint in this style when I was in grade five and that's it,” she said. “I just learned this style in art school and I didn't practice it later. But when I came here, I felt that I wanted to share Ukrainian art, Ukrainian traditional art with Canada, with the Okanagan community. So I actually started painting in this style after a very long time not painting with it. I get a very positive response from people on this traditional art.”

Two of Stefania Miroshnichenko's works in the traditional Ukrainian style Petrykivka.

Image Credit: Stefania Miroshnichenko

She has an upcoming event at Metro Hub at 7 p.m. on March 6 where she’ll tell her story, and talk about her memoir. Admission to the event is free but signing up for a ticket is required because space is limited.

“This event will be dedicated to my book and I will share my experiences and how the war came into my life and how it changed me dramatically,” she said.

Click here to check out her art and memoir.

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