Artist raising funds to support Ukraine

A Highlands artist is working on selling prints of her works in support of those impacted the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Catherine Connolly Hudson, originally from Coventry, England, has been in Highlands since 2019 shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic after being in the corporate world for many years. She’s a transplant to the mountain town from the Raleigh-Durham area and said painting, as well as being a yoga instructor, is something she loves doing and set out to do more of during her retirement.

To help those in Ukraine, she is selling prints of three of her oil paintings, including “Wintering,” “Solidarity for Ukraine,” and “Sunflowers.”

All of the proceeds are going to help refugees “fleeing the atrocities inflicted by [Russian president Vladimir] Putin on the people of Ukraine.”

“I think why anyone wants to do anything is obvious,” Hudson said. “It’s just heartbreaking. And I think it’s difficult for us, collectively, to sit here and watch this happen and feel so helpless. It’s not as if we can stop it, but we can help all of those affected by it.”

The paintings vary in size and each one requires a different donation. For example, “Solidarity for Ukraine” requires a donation of $100 or more to the charity of the buyer’s choosing in support of Ukraine. Hudson said the person will cover the postage and the print will be sent to the buyer.

Hudson has also completed other oil paintings of subjects such as Half Mile Farm in Highlands, “The Gardener at Glen Cove,” and one depicting filmmaker David Lynch.

“I belong to Mountaintop Rotary, and they had not put programming in place of how we were going to address what’s happening in Ukraine,” Hudson said. “So, a few days after [selling her Sunflower painting], they came up with their plan and matching funds. Then I thought, ‘well, you know after the Sunflower painting, I got an order for the second one, and I was like, I just don’t have enough time to paint these fast enough. I need to do prints; how can I raise money?”

The current conflict in Ukraine erupted on Feb. 24 and is a territorial dispute with Russia. Although the present battle has raged on there for more than a month, this is an ongoing struggle that has dated back to at least December 1991 when Ukraine declared its independence from the former Soviet Union, which had just fallen in Europe.

Just a few days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 21, Russia recognized the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states and moved in to “keep the peace,” according to a timeline provided by the U.S. News website. Those regions broke away from Ukraine in 2014.

According to report in BBC News on March 22, Putin’s “initial aim was to overrun Ukraine and depose its government, ending for good its desire to join the Western defensive alliance NATO.”

Putin seized the southern region of Ukraine known as Crimea in 2014, and he sees the fall of the Soviet Union as the “disintegration of historical Russia,” according to the BBC report.

Hudson’s goal with her paintings was to raise $1,000 last week, and the Mountaintop Rotary agreed to match up to $16,000 for its member donations. She said the club is partnering with the Budavar Rotary club on the border in Hungary to help feed and shelter refugees that are pouring into that country from Ukraine.

Other organizations pitching in to help refugees with immediate impact include Shelterbox, Doctors without Borders and World Central Kitchen, Hudson said. World Central Kitchen is providing one million meals to families across Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Moldova, and Hungary, while Doctors Without Borders is providing medical assistance and Shelterbox raises awareness about global displacement to provide families with the tools to rebuild their homes.

“The money I raise from my paintings is going directly to the Budavar, Hungary Rotary Club, who are actively sheltering refugees at the border,” Hudson said.

- By Michael O'Hearn/Crossroads Chronicle