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Award-winning photojournalist Justyna Mielnikiewicz from Poland’s work is exhibited at the Orlando Museum of Art’s Relentless Courage: Ukraine and the World at War presented by the Gingsburg Family Foundation
I enter the museum gallery and am immediately hit with the overwhelming reality of the war waged against Ukraine. Awareness was not absent in my mind, but seeing these visual accounts by world-class photojournalists spanning the first 4 months of the invasion has an impact that is not experienced through television coverage. This is the exhibit now opened at the Orlando Museum of Art, Relentless Courage: Ukraine and the World at War, presented by the Ginsberg Family Foundation.
The images are reproductions of the originals published by Blue Press from a book named by the same name as the exhibit. Proceeds from the event and book will be donated to the Olena Zelenska Foundation. What can I do with this profound knowledge that in our world freedom to live one’s own life is being stripped from a people? I decide to donate, as meager as that is, it is all I feel I have control of in this radical obliteration.
The works are not considered fine art in what it is the usual fare when visiting an art museum, but it is notable and I am proud that I am a volunteer at this institution. The museum represents enlightenment and so what better place to exhibit these photographs? One is reminded of that courage to stand up for your freedom no matter what the odds. The photos speak to our shared humanity, we are touched by strength, fear, grief and human contact for caring for each other. Art should be profound, whether simply decorative towards an element of the sublime or gut wrenching reaching where your heart and mind embrace the human condition.
We collectively know the result of war. My country, the United States of America, developed on a continent protected by oceans, and friendly neighbors, but we are also no strangers to invasion. The U.S.A. invaded a continent and took a culture away from the native inhabitants of this land, and to survive at all, they had to die or conform. Years later, we had invasions on our land that caused many deaths, and it stirred generations to bond, throwing away our fears in pursuit of freedom.
We are lucky, our country is large and mighty and there are myriad forces that are in place to protect our freedom. Our sense of fear is mitigated by that protection. Yet we focus on the negative noise we hear in the media: Should we extend the debt ceiling? Are mortgage interest rates still increasing? We have a housing crisis, a health crisis, a global warming crisis, and the government is at a standstill. This is noise of our time, BUT we do have freedom.
My real estate story is not unique and it was in part by accident. As a young artist, I already saw the proverbial “writing on the wall” that my very cheap rent was not going to stay that way. I decided to venture from downtown Los Angeles to New York City. The big apple was not going to be inexpensive and was not in my budget but I became determined to own. I wanted my freedom to do as I wished to my own home and to pay towards my own equity. Without steady income or any idea of what I was going to do, I found out that Jersey City may be in fact a possibility. Right across the river and only a 30 cent and 5-minute ride on the PATH train. I devised a plan with other artists to buy a large building and in one weekend we found it. Luck was on our side, a raging interest rate of 15% and a realtor owned building willing to hold the mortgage without any income verification allowed the transaction to happen. This was in 1980. What allowed me to this was having no fear and a desire for having control of my own future security and the freedom to do as I wished with my home. This home is now the reason my daughter has a home, as I was able to take equity and pay a 50% down payment on her home, bought in 2017 and already double in value. She too, an artist has now the freedom to move, sell or rent as she wishes, and her monthly payments are far less than rent would be. My building which became 4 condos, 2 of which I still own, are funding my renovation projects. Doing the work to turn this building into a home was not for the faint of heart. I am not trying to sugar coat this at all. It was hard work and sometimes I thought I would lose my mind living in a construction site without a Certificate of Occupancy, in other words, it was not fit to live in. At times, it did look like a war zone, but it was not. It was a desire for Freedom in a country that allowed it to happen.
Turn off the noise that keeps you from that one major step. Lose your fear, find a way to ownership. It is the true ticket to your freedom and independence. There is a plethora of programs to help you get there. Let me help you, and you may not even need to renovate like you are living in a war zone!
