Anna Mykhalchuk fled Ukraine with her husband Oleh and son Nazarii, carrying two backpacks and a baby carrier.
A year on and in Tasmania, she is set to self-publish a collaborative bilingual children's book written in Ukrainian and English called Forest Adventures.
Combining aspects of Ukraine and her current home, it features Ukrainian folk art and Australian native animals alongside bilingual storytelling.
Before the war in Ukraine, Ms Mykhalchuk trained in Ukrainian folk art and continued to create art shortly after arriving in Tasmania.
She said creating and sharing Ukrainian folk art in her new home was a point of pride that kept her connected to her country and culture.
Ukrainian art shared
Reminders of home surround Ms Mykhalchuk's Hobart apartment, a year on from fleeing Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
Almost every wall is a feast of colourful paintings, created by Ms Mykhalchuk in the Ukrainian style of painting called samchykivka.
A folk art originating from a village called Samchyki, samchykivka can be found on houses in Ukraine, which are otherwise mostly white.
"Ukrainian people are very creative, very talented, and everyone wants to be unique," Ms Mykhalchuk said.
"Sometimes they put ornaments on the house to say, 'This is my house, I like flowers, or green leaves'."
She began painting samchykivka three years ago and recommenced painting within two weeks of arriving in Tasmania.
Having left her own art supplies in Ukraine, Ms Mykhalchuk purchased a few supplies locally to use her skills to fundraise for a close friend's family still in Ukraine.
"I started painting greeting cards and it was hard to paint each one," Ms Mykhalchuk said.
"It was a push for me to create more. I started painting on canvas and did Dance of the Dragon, it's my first artwork in Tasmania.
"It's very special for me."
Combining two cultures
The artist will soon become a self-published author with the creation of a collaborative bilingual children's book that features illustrations of samchykivka alongside Australian native animals.
Inspired by her four-year-old son Nazarii, and other Ukrainian children who have come to Australia, the book aims to teach Ukrainian language alongside English.
"We try to speak Ukrainian at home because we want him to know his native language," Ms Mykhalchuk said.
The book is set for release in April.
Ms Mykhalchuk wrote and illustrated the book in collaboration with Iryna Bohlscheid and Anastasiia Ananieva.
All three women are of Ukrainian heritage and live in Tasmania.
They met through a Ukrainian community gathering.
For Ms Mykhalchuk, the book is also an opportunity for reciprocal learning between her second home and her home country.
"I'm like a bridge between two countries, two cultures," Ms Mykhalchuk said.
Interpreting samchykivka
As wall art, samchykivka paintings can be turned to reveal further imagery in the patterns and negative space created by the artist.
A rooster, leaping fish, snakes and butterflies can be found in just one of Ms Mykhalchuk's interactive pieces.
"If you look deeper, you can see another animal hiding in this art," Ms Mykhalchuk said.
"For some of my art, I have more than 20 variants … it's amazing to see people recognise other things."
Colour can hold symbolism in samchykivka, Ms Mykhalchuk explained.
"Yellow is for energy, green is the colour of nature and of life," she said.
"Blue is a calm colour and offers protection."
For the artist, samchykivka has become a tie to the home country she hopes to one day return to.
"I feel strong connections every time I paint, with my family, with my land and my culture and with myself," Ms Mykhalchuk said.
"I feel better when I see it and I have it in my house, I remember my family, I remember my native land when I look at this."
