HUMANITY, TODAY

Origin, watercolor 20"x30"

I have started my Origin series many years ago. Moving from my native country, Croatia, to the United States seventeen years ago created a feeling of nostalgia, a sense of never fully belonging. I came here as an adult, so the complicated nuances of language that can't be translated, and the cultural differences are always there with me. I carry them as a tiny weight. A small price to pay to live a life where I want to be.

When I was a teenager we had a war in my country and many of my friends of different nationalities fled the county overnight. My best friend was one of them, and I didn't know if she and her family were alive for several years. They just disappeared overnight. The city where I lived became a war zone and was under constant grenading. My entire high school was "transplanted" to a remote area where it was safe, and we lived there for a full year.

We were lucky we were alive. 

Those were difficult times in my life, and it hurts to know what people are capable of, how cruel humanity can be. And today it hurts me to think a human life can be extinguished on the basis of race. It sickens me to see the color of one's skin can make a difference in life or death.