Ukrainian Babushka, 2022, acrylic on board, 20 x 16 in. / 50.8 x 40.64 cm.

Ukrainian Babushka, Mary Wertsch, 2022, acrylic on board, 20 x 16 in. / 50.8 x 40.64 cm.

Acrylic on board. This 80 year-old babushka was living inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in 2021, about nine months before the Russian invasion of Ukaine. Her life was hard, but she loved her land and her animals. Was she laughing, or crying?