Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait is the second portrait I have made in clay, and the first of myself.
The composition holds three elements. A face, looking slightly upward. A small YaYu resting on top of the head — glazed, tender, pink. And a collar settled around the neck — the colour of patina, dark and grounding.
The glazing is deliberate. The light surface above, the heavy one below — two registers of one life.
Work in progress, my studio, Barcelona, 20/01/2026
I live between two realities: the war in my home country, the home in Kherson I cannot return to — and this life, where I am alive, where I work, where there is room for joy. The portrait does not resolve the two. It holds them in one figure.
Within the world of my work, this piece marks the point where YaYu appear for what they are — not characters beside me, but what I carry, and what carries me.
Self-Portrait
hand-built partly glazed stoneware, 2026
Available on request