Mixed media by Julia Datchenko

The papercut “Longing” is a poem about pain and memory, about the impossibility of forgetting and, at the same time, about the desire for healing. Longing here is not just sadness, but a higher form of love, when the heart still hurts, but already glows from within. The bird above the tree is a symbol of the path to light, a liberated soul, hope, and the desire for heaven. It symbolizes the light of longing, the moment when pain becomes prayer. The tree with fruit-flowers is the axis of life, memory, the root of feelings. Its flowers are memories, love that does not fade but brings pain. Women with the bodies of predatory animals are the two sides of human nature: instinct and reason, pain and consciousness. Their feminine essence is combined with a wild body, because longing makes even the gentle sharp, alive, tense. The snake that bites the heart is the pain itself, which does not disappear but forces one to feel, live, remember. It is the embodiment of how memory and love hurt but at the same time give meaning. This papercut is a symbol of farewell and hope, a symbol of spiritual search. Women see in the bird what was once lost.