It is odd to imagine that just a week ago the world was a rather different place – living in interesting times really doesn’t live up to the hype. It’s only the fourth special edition Crate and with the exception of Siblings, the other two – Isolation and Afghanistan – were inspired by the external events, the second lockdown and the Taliban takeover. Which means that for obvious reasons, now it’s time for a special edition Crate about Ukraine. Let’s get to it with no further ado.

1.  “Once, as a young girl, I was tending a gaggle of geese. When I got with them to a sandy beach, on the bank of the river, after crossing a field dotted with wild flowers, I began to draw real and imaginary flowers with a stick on the sand… Later, I decided to paint the walls of my house using natural pigments. After that I’ve never stopped drawing and painting.” – Maria Pryimachenko (Ukrainian: Приймаченко Марія Оксентіївна), a peasant woman and self-taught painter is considered to be one of the most outstanding representatives of naive art.

2. Not sure about Ukrainian geography? The Visual Capitalist has got you covered.

3. The founder of Suprematism, Kazimir Malevich, also counts Kyiv as his birthplace.

4. If instead of dry geographical data, we look at the local dishes – the map of Ukraine gets considerably more colourful.

5. Before Christianity, the Kievan Rus are thought to have worshipped the primordial Slavic gods, one of whom was Mokosh – the Mother Moist Earth.

6. Considering the effort of the Ukrainian national dance hopak demands, Sergei Polunin’s ballet moves start looking very natural.

7. And to finish off this special edition, a little comic by Itchy Feet.

And that’s it for this time. Happy reading and until next week!
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