A South Hampstead psychologist and a Ukrainian artist have formed an unexpected online friendship that blossomed into a fruitful mentoring project.
When the war started, Maxine Jaffa was keen to support artists in Ukraine and reached out to an art school in Kyiv to make a donation.
Although she didn't expect a response, she was taken aback to get an answer from Gaya Arushanian, director of Kyiv's School of Experimental Art, who said her message of support had given her hope that there were good people in the world.
"She called it 'people power'," says Max. "It was an art school I loved the look of and would have liked to visit in happier times."
Gaya fled Kyiv during the early days of the conflict and was too distraught to concentrate on her painting, but willingly offered to mentor Jaffa with her own artwork. Their project, Peoples Pets Portraits was filmed through a time lapse video.
“She was just so broken hearted and stressed that she wasn't able to paint and didn't have access to any materials so when we collaborated on this piece, I was literally painting and drawing for her," says Max.
"Gaya gave me the courage to start my career in art. She encouraged me to create a giant person-pet-portrait entitled Rosa & Pax and I was able to use my neuroscience background to capture the intimate connection between the inner and outer self.
"It's really lovely because it's a physical thing in the world that shows the connection between people."
The video, posted on Instagram, led others to connect with Gaya - wanting to know more about her school in Kyiv and how the artwork was completed. She has restarted painting, creating poignant depictions of war. It also led to commissions to paint portraits of people with their pets. She donates a percentage of fees to the art school, which Gaya uses to send food parcels to families and offer art lessons to children.
Max says the whole project has brought two communities together and enabled people from Hampstead to contribute in a meaningful way.
“Art is a common thing that unites us all, no matter what is done to us, it is the one thing that cannot be taken away from us," she said.
To commission Max visit www.maxjartist.com/
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