Marin Exhibit To Showcase Ukrainian Artist, Aid Children's Hospital

CASTRO VALLEY, CA — Julia Kosivchuk is doing what she can to keep up with events back home. Sometimes, it’s too much.

“Your heart stops, you can’t even breath,” the 42-year-old Ukrainian artist said. “You feel like you’re out of breath.”

Kosivchuk’s closest relatives are out of immediate danger for the moment. Valentyna Kosivchuk, her 64-year-old mother, Antonina Babchuk, her 41-year-old sister and Babchuk’s children, Oleksij, 14, and Anastasia,11, escaped to Poland in the early days of the war.

Kosivchuk escapes the atrocities of Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked attack on her country in a studio at her Castro Valley home.

She paints in bold, bright colors in acrylic, oil and watercolor that make her depictions of sunflowers and summer cocktails pop.

“It’s my hideaway place,” Kosivchuk said of her art.

“The reality is too much for me, so for a few moments I can feel that I’m alive.”

Kosivchuk is painting at a frantic pace these days. She’s typically up at dawn and works well into the night, creating art for the only cause that matters to her and the Ukrainian people.

On Saturday, Kosivchuk’s art will be on display at a San Rafael exhibit with all proceeds from the event going to Okhmadyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, the nation’s largest children's hospital.

The exhibit will be held Body Vibe (999 Andersen Dr #170), a San Rafael dance/yoga studio (near the Smart & Final on Anderson).

It will be the second such fundraising exhibit she’s held since the war broke out. An exhibit she held at her home last month raised over $4,000.

She hopes to generate more sales through her website but cautions that she hasn’t had time to fully update her listed inventory.

“I’m painting non-stop, because I know that it will all go to charity to kids,” she said.

“It will remind (the buyers) that they did something good. When they look at it they’ll know that they may have saved someone’s life.”

Kosivchuk is from the city of Chernivtsi in southwestern Ukraine. She worked as a journalist in Ukraine before moving to the United States.

She’s also involved in martial arts.

Kosivchuk teaches karate and ju-jitsu at Castro Valley’s Community Park.

The outpouring of support she’s received from her students has overwhelmed Kosivchuk.

“All of my students showed up when the war started wearing Ukrainian flag patches on their karate uniforms,” she said.

“All the girls wore blue and yellow ponytail bows, and the boys wore (blue and yellow) headbands.”

Parents brought her a large “We Stand with Ukraine” sign.

“It was very moving,” she said. “We really feel the support of the community. It’s amazing how people are trying to support us.”

The support matters.

Kosivchuk described feeling like she’s living through a dystopian nightmare. Falling asleep is hard and waking up is harder. That’s when she’s forced to confront the unimaginable devastation her country is experiencing some 8,000 miles away.

“When you’re living a normal life and your (mother) and your sister are running away from the war and are refugees, you can’t even realize that fully. You don’t understand how this can be happening in the 21st century. It’s horrible,” she said.

“It’s your country, and those beautiful cities, now they’re gone, but the hardest thing is kids are dying.

“They are killing kids in cold blood just like that, and that’s the hardest part.”

The Marin exhibit came about through a chance encounter with Bob Cullinan, a San Rafael resident who she met at a mutual friend's home.

"We talked for a bit, Julia played with my dog, and the next morning, she sent me the most amazing painting of my dog Fausto," Cullinan said.

"She had only spent a few minutes with Fausto, but somehow she managed to totally capture his spirit (and even his floppy left ear).

"I was blown away."

And when Cullinan learned that Kosivchuk held the Castro Valley exhibit, he felt compelled to facilitate a similar event in San Rafael.

"We watch what is happening in Ukraine, and wish there was something we could do to help the people who are suffering," Cullinan said.

"Now, thanks to a local artist...we can."