Antonina Dubchak: a life in the colours of struggle and creativity
Міст кольорів#Culture#Bridge of Colours
Antonina Dubchak was born and lived in Donetsk Oblast, in the city of Pokrovsk – before the war a modern mining town, full of life, energy and the drive to grow. Today Pokrovsk is a city of struggle, resilience and hope.
Antonina has two main qualifications, in economics and in art, but it was her love of art that became her true calling. While studying at a school for decorators and at an art university, she absorbed every piece of advice from her teachers and carefully completed every assignment, honing her skills. That training became a solid foundation in her life and paved the way for her creative self-expression.
She began her working life as a decorator and later became a staff artist at various institutions: an institute, a house of culture, a library, a cinema. Her employment record book still reads: artist, Krasnolymanska State Coal Company – even though the company itself no longer exists.
The company is gone. Her home is gone – it was bombed. But she still has what matters most: two wonderful sons, two lovely granddaughters and a chirpy little great-granddaughter who fills her life with warmth and meaning.
Since 6 April 2022 Antonina has lived in Italy, in the small town of Mondragone, 50 km from Naples. Like many Ukrainians, she was forced to leave her homeland – her beautiful, wounded but unbroken Pokrovsk.
Here she carries on with her vocation, teaching young artists to draw. For Antonina, art is not just a profession but a calling of the soul, the heart and the mind. Teaching children to draw is an even deeper process, because every teacher who passes on knowledge in a sense multiplies themselves by the number of their pupils. With them she grows younger and shares their joy, discovering the world of creativity in all its colours.
In 2024 her pupils took part in the All-Ukrainian Drawing Competition, winning two diplomas and two medals. In Ukraine Antonina had pupils of her own and her own art and advertising studio. But the children she teaches now are her most precious treasure, for with them she dives into a peaceful, cosy, fairy-tale world of creativity where war has no place.
This year her pupils submitted their work to three competitions, earning 20 certificates and 10 diplomas in total.
Antonina is boundlessly grateful to Italy, a country with centuries-old artistic traditions, and to the local Italians who support Ukrainian refugees with kindness and sincerity, helping them with everyday life and offering moral and material support.
Antonina paints in oils, gouache, watercolour, acrylic and tempera, and draws with coloured pencils. Her body of work includes graphic pieces, portraits, landscapes, still lifes and caricatures. With particular reverence she paints icons, as symbols of faith, spirituality and hope.
Her life has been full of trials, yet it is also full of art, which gives her meaning, light and a bond with her native land, which always lives in her heart.
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