Host, Tonya Scholz ( @knowaging) and co-host, Carlos Sicilia (@SiciliaStandUp) chat with NFT artist Alena Morel (@AlenaMorel1) about her project, ”House of Tyranny”. Her NFTs are about resistance to a cruel dictatorship. She sells her artwork to help Ukrainian children by donating to “Voices of Children,” which provides psychological support to children affected by the Russian war against Ukraine. Charitable contributions, for some kids, they conduct art therapy classes. For others – they provide individual psychological assistance. They help some kids with the treatment needed for PTSD, others – with housing, education, and more.
Originally Live streamed via Twitter Spaces on Sunday, July 10 @ 7 PM EST for #NFTsForACause (EPS 23).
Listen to the REPLAY. 👇
ABOUT ALENA MORELL:
Alena Morell has been into art since she was a young child. Growing up in her uncle’s art studio, she would spend all her summers following him around and trying to master brushwork. At age five, Alena wanted to become an artist. After graduating high school, she moved to Moscow to attend the Moscow Academy of Art, graduated with a Fine Art and Orthodox Iconography degree, and worked for a Church as an iconography artist, mainly doing frescos. Alena worked for a while painting for private collectors as a freelancer. In 2020, she moved to the US to study Graphic Design at UCLA. That sparked an interest in digital art.
Furthermore, as she grew older, she gradually lost her spirituality, which moved her away from religious art. In a way, she lost faith in the Russian Orthodox Church because she felt the church used more of a weapon against its people than as a real spiritual safe space. In a sense, it has become a tool of repression in Russia. A way to standardize minds. And she started pushing against that when she was in Russia. So gradually, she moved away from religious art into a more politically engaged art. When the war in Ukraine started, her family separated opposite sides, and she was the only one who was against the war. It broke her heart. She lost friends and family because of Russia’s massive propaganda. Sharing her artwork with the world is a way to express her feelings about the crimes against Ukrainian citizens by Putin’s regime and offers a way for her to share her dissent even though she could risk jail time if she ever returned to Russia.
Voices of Children
Psychological support for children and parents, online and offline in different regions of Ukraine. Assistance to children with disabilities. Psychosocial care and rehabilitation. Targeted support for families with children affected by the war, basic necessities, settlements, etc. Provision of places for collective residence of migrants.
Voices of Children are working in various villages and towns along the frontline in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
For more info about Voices of Children: https://voices.org.ua/en
Charter of charitable foundation: https://voices.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/statut-Holosy-ditey.pdf
