And I think it helps in this way because all these things happened and because I choose this way how to express my feelings.

And it helps me right now to not feel this, you know, stupor.

I was contacted by one of the community members.

I received several emails, a couple of phone calls, and everybody was talking about the family that came to Chattanooga to participate in an art exchange.

Young couple that found out that their ten days stay will probably have to be extended because the war started in their country.

We got connected to Denis and Victoria probably about four or five years ago.

This was pre-COVID.

Melissa Hefferlin, who is a friend and instructor here and local artist, reached out to me and she said, I have these two friends, artist friends, and I think that we should bring them here.

The proposal was for us to have a show and then we would also have a workshop taught by Victoria with Denis co-teaching.

We had it all set for the end of February.

Breaking news.

In the United States, you receive this message and... Nobody knows when they can become a refugee.

You know, it's such an unpredictable situation.

No matter how prosperous your country is, how democratic it is, how well you do in your life, These are people who never did anything wrong, just external circumstances put them in extreme situation.

You know, imagine preparing for a year and a half for a solo show and to teach a sold out workshop.

We had people from all over the country coming to take this workshop with her and Denis.

They have to stretch and frame about 30 paintings to get ready for the show.

They have to attend an opening and teach and deal with the shock and the horror and all of the emotions of being away from home.

What I always look for is, will this break you?

Or will your inner strength get you through this?

And both of them seem so strong and so much, I think together.

They're strong as individuals, but they're also strong together as a young couple.

I knew that they know how to deal with it, because we know that art is healing.

For the opening, we had a sold out, almost a sold out show.

And it was so amazing how many people came to the opening in support of Ukraine.

People were wearing yellow and blue and in support of Denis and Victoria.

People were just really wanting to help people that they knew who it was going to help directly.

We started to go fund me and we raised like $17,000 in like a week.

And then people would drop by checks, people would drop by gift baskets, people would come by and drop by all of this stuff.

Call and say, Hey, do you need a studio?

Do you need a place to live?

And so our office kind of became like this conduit.

So every time Denis and Victoria would come here, I had something to give them.

I had money or I had a gift or I had, and they were just like, What?

You know, they were just overwhelmed.

I'm just very grateful for people of our community to offer an opportunity for Ukrainians to wait out this terrible situation where they are met with welcoming hands, open hearts, where they're loved, where they're understood.

And I'm really happy that this young couple will start their journey, whatever the future holds, here.

I think that they have embraced Chattanooga and they've been overwhelmed by all of the support.

They have gotten their own studio and apartment, so I'm feeling like they're going to be here for a while.

To have people here that are going to be part of your artistic community and be able to help them and fold them in to the art community the way that this community has, is pretty amazing.

The opposite of what happened in Ukraine, I mean, what Russia do with Ukraine.

If you see only this situation you can...