Untitled. Srawberry Andreevna 2016

Alevtyna Kakhidze made this spread in a sketchbook using ink and what looks like watercolor. I love the way the green bleeds across the bottom of both pages, making a kind of stage for the figures and tombstones. The drawing is so direct, like a kid's, but also knowing. There is something heartbreaking and funny about the little flowers dotted over the green, they feel so vulnerable in contrast to the starkness of the crosses and the floating, ghostlike figures. This isn't slick or showy, it's art as a direct act of bearing witness. It reminds me a bit of Forrest Bess' visionary paintings, a kind of raw, unfiltered expression. In art, as in life, sometimes the most powerful statements are the ones that embrace simplicity and resist easy answers.