Mixed media by Julia Datchenko

In this paper cutout, a combination of longing, prayer, and tranquility creates a harmonious unity. It depicts female solidarity, sisterhood, and compassion. These are two souls united by love and a shared destiny. The two female figures symbolize two sides of the same entity: matter and spirit, love and sacrifice, silence and voice. Their fusion is the archetype of the Mother-Sister-Goddess, in which all living beings are united. Their bodies are intertwined in a knot that symbolizes love, pain, and shared experience that cannot be untangled. In a mythological sense, this is the center of the universe, the place where all roads converge. The bird between the figures is a spirit born of love and trust; a symbol of liberation, hope, and prayer. It is a bird of spirit, unity, a symbol of purity of feelings, mutual understanding, and spiritual flight. Flower wreaths are an eternal feminine image associated with beauty, fertility, and connection with nature. Ribbon rays symbolize the rhythm of life, pulse, breath, energy, and words of prayer that come from within, like light from the heart.