This painting was inspired by a news report featuring a tiger in Odessa Zoo.
The animal’s nobility, poise and resoluteness in the face of the continuing
rumble of Russian artillery fire seemed to encapsulate the spirit of President
Zlenski and the Ukrainian people. The cage is open, the courage of Ukraine
cannot be caged by Russian aggression, the sign on the cage, a rewrite of a
haiku I wrote recently, warns Russia that the tiger has cousins everywhere.
Democracy and freedom come at a price, at present Ukraine is paying dearly
for all our futures. We need to be good cousins to the tiger and come to
Ukraine’s assistance in every way possible, humanitarian aid, sanctions and
direct military involvement. Russia must be driven out and Putin seen to be
defeated otherwise the sense of history repeating and a new Hitler stalking
Europe and the rest of the world will become a reality.
