Ksenia and Lei met at the Repin Academy of Arts in St Petersburg. He had come from China; she was from Kemerovo in Siberia. Lei immediately felt as though they had met before, while Ksenia only recognised her love after they had parted. Back home in Kemerovo, she dreamt of him dressed in white against the backdrop of the Tibetan mountains. The next morning, she wrote to him. When Lei told his mentor about it, he told him not to let this one get away.
Ksenia returned to St Petersburg, and she and Lei have not been apart since. They married and had a child. Ksenia paints portraits of fighters in the Special Military Operation and creates works about the war in Donbass. Mothers of fallen soldiers send her photographs to her with a simple request: «Please paint a portrait of my son.»
Among those whose memory the couple wish to honour is their close friend – an artist named Aleksandr Fyodorov, callsign Zodchy (‘The Architect’). Lei supports his wife and also addresses the topic of Donbass in his work. They are now united not only by love, but by a shared goal to tell the stories of heroes who must not be forgotten.
