Ukrainian artists Feldman sisters: "Ukraine is undergoing a rebirth. But giving birth is not always pleasant”

The war in Ukraine has changed many things. Somewhere it highlighted the main things, somewhere it shifted the focus to those things that are usually forgotten in daily routine. The war always touches our fears and doubts, and for the artists it turns them into images and stories. And yet, the street artists Feldman sisters managed to keep their pictures as vivid and cartoonish as they used to be before the war. But now the topics of the future, which the sisters embody in their work, are associated with protective charms: motankas (Ukrainian traditional dolls), Cossacks, and flowers (a symbol of rebirth). The sisters say that they hope for the best, and this hope at least heals if not saves them. And their native city Kyiv gives strength to survive everything without losing optimism. After all, the defeated is the one who gave up. And Ukrainians do not give up.

Nicole and Michelle are well known in their homeland and beyond as street artists. Their works are on the walls in Brussels, Barcelona, Berlin, Athens, Sri Lanka etc. But most are in their native Ukraine. However, recently more and more projects have been created for merchandise (clothing, books, tarot cards) and in collaboration with various foundations and brands. All in order to raise as much money as possible as donations and make their contribution to the future victory. 

Their reflections on life are free of any system boundaries, because Sestry Feldman are basically children who grew up outside the system: educated at home and learned only what they wanted. That is why their thoughts are sometimes wise in the dad's way (the father who is an inventor gave them the most important pieces of life advice), magical in the mom's way (their names come from her dream) and sometimes not childishly naive, but crystal straightforward. There are two of them, as identical as two peas in a pod. They are both 27 years old. They assure that they rarely argue, and form their own rules of life together .

Within a day you should find time to learn, to create, and to love.This is Dad's main and most beloved advice, which for our family is a daily principle.

On our website, we wrote that our creativity was born when we were. That's a joke, of course… or is it? We've both been painting and inventing things since we were kids. For example, we created sketches of a game in PowerPoint and already imagined how it would be sold in the computer store next door. We were not motivated by money or popularity, we were still kids. There was a huge desire to create something complete. Maybe we could have done something really original if our little brother hadn't deleted everything when we got into one of our childhood fights over nothing.

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We have an obligatory tradition in our family to meet on every birthday. Even war could not change it.We have a very big and close-knit family, five children altogether. We have a little brother and a little sister, a big brother and a half-sister. So it wasn't boring when we were growing up, although none of us tried to be a leader. There was a complete decentralization of power in the house.

Mom and Dad weren't classic teachers, but they were our life teachers.We attended music school, swimming, we always chose for ourselves, what we wanted to do. We went to school from the 6th to 9th grade. Our parents didn't want to send us to school themselves, but they didn't mind when we wanted to go there as well as when we decided not to go on. It seemed to us that we weren't learning anything there. What is learning, after all? It is a sincere desire to discover, to explore, and to create by having new experiences. That's what our parents taught us.

Recently we have painted one of the schools in Kyiv. Children should see bright colors and beauty. Especially nowadays. In the post-Soviet space, schools often look like gray prisons, what kind of childhood is that? So we want to continue this project.

If you dive into art at the right moment — it will heal, if not save. When war broke out, we panicked, just like everyone else. I remember the second day of it. Our whole family was in Kyiv, we didn't want to do anything. Then we started watching "Scary Movie". A great comedy, it turns out. We hadn’t laughed so loudly and sincerely our entire life, perhaps. So we were sitting together and laughing out loud. Someone would say — it's already mental, but we were saved at that moment.

No matter how it sounds, the war is beneficial for Ukrainian culture. And the upbringing of morality. We started to think more about our history, roots and heroes. And look at how much other people around the world are learning about Ukraine and our culture. How much they listen with interest, how much attention and positive attitude they have. You know, childbirth is not always pleasant, but there is no life without it. Alexander Filonenko (contemporary Ukrainian theologian and philosopher — remark by the author) once said this. Great words.

Our culture is richer than Shevchenko's poems. Although Shevchenko's poems are cool and it is certainly a big part of Ukrainian culture. Finally, we have learned about it ourselves. Since the Ukrainian topic has been actualized and expanded, art people began to dig deeper and wider into the past, outside the usual frameworks and without stereotypical thinking.

In Ukraine we are home everywhere. The idea came up to us to visit different cities of the country and to present something protective and magical. So we started to make pictures of the motankas (protective charm in a form of a doll— by author) on the walls in different cities. We come and do it, without any invitation or reason. Everywhere we feel a connection with people, just some kind of cosmic, maybe the reason for it is a common shared experience.

Need to look for positive vibes around, life is too negative itself.

Our choice of colors and style have not changed, they have even become brighter. It is our visual representation of the world. We have not changed inside either. Just got more emotions.

We do not pity any of the works created on the city walls that have been painted over. Well, do not pity yet. The whole point of painting on the street is not to ask permission or regret that the painting cycle is over. There's a challenge in that. And now people often help instead of interfering. For example, the patrol police helped us to paint the Cossacks on the walls. And it was the strangest experience of all time. Why did we choose such an image? Well, it wasn’t conscious. But we do not think that they will be painted over by the people of public service. They will live on.

Most of the works are in Ukraine, of course, most of them are in Kyiv — it is love at first sight and forever. We’ve seen no better city in the world.

The streets of the city belong to everyone and no one.

In our work, we talk about what we care about. We used to be interested in artificial intelligence and its impact on humanity. We tried to understand the subject of NFT. We realized that it demands being immersed completely, nothing happens by itself.  This is a complex IT-product, the success of which depends more on marketing skills than on ideas.

Digital and real walls are two totally opposite stories. Outdoor work is for everyone and has its own cycle, sooner or later it will get painted over. And we are absolutely fine with that. This means that the cycle of our work will come to an end. Wall art has a short life, but is always relevant. The work online belongs to someone, maybe that makes it even more temporary. Art must be seen.

If we have to learn something, it has to be something new.The more diverse the knowledge, the broader the worldview. You can hear music, and through music you can see vivid visual images. It turns out that other kinds of art influence the context in which you are now. That's why we never wanted to get an art education, we'd rather do something related, like animation.

Thoughts are material if you really believe in them. This may sound absurd to some people. But we believe we can program our thoughts for a better future. Through a deck of our tarot cards it is possible to get a deep psychological experience. We created them after the war started. They contain all the archetypes of people and events in 78 images. It seems to us that this is not only a good form for creativity, but also a psychological practice for a person.

It's fun to sit and dream together. Writing those dreams down and then watching them turn into goals.

We believe in people and their noble intentions. Right now, most people are volunteering and collecting donations. We are no exception. Very often people from foundations and various brands write and ask us to paint some specific things. We don't hesitate to give them away. We do not follow their fate, we trust our fellow countrymen.

The idea of a big trick, you know, like in the movie "The Prestige", inspires us. People turn life into perspective, and no one knows the flip side. That's the kind of amazing trick Banksy is showing the world right now. His life is a road in art. We don't know how it can go on for so long, but the trick has succeeded. Still, it's a good thing that our lives are just lives, not prestige. Everything is straightforward, simple and in vivid colors. In that respect, despite all the events, our lives have not changed.