The painting is dedicated to the memory of Tatiana and Tamara Sotkilava, my mother's aunts, who froze to death in the mountains while escaping ethnic cleansing of Georgians by Russia during the war in Abkhazia.
Sukhumi is a city in Abkhazia on the Black Sea coast that was attacked and occupied by Russians in 1992. In the Georgian language, Sukhumi means ‘Hornbeam tree’. In 1993 the Georgian cities Ochamchire, Gagra, Bitschvinta, Otobaia, were also occupied. Sochi was taken by Russia in 1922. Sochi is a Georgian word for the Fir tree.The painting was completed in July 2008, just weeks before the Russian 58-Th Army attacked and occupied more Georgian territory in South Ossetia, driving another 100,000 people from their homes.
