Laala

I have a sister; her name is Lala. “Laalya” — this is how this name sounds in Azerbaijani. “Laalya” means “poppy, a red flower of poppy”. Lala is 5 years older than me. She was responsible for my education. The huge part of the basic awareness I have acquired from her. But it was hard to build up the relationship with her, I managed that only at age 5 or 6. First, we were competing, we constantly fought for our parents’ love. Our father didn’t live with us, and our mother was at work all the time. When they returned home, I felt she was loved more than myself. Then one incident changed everything. We lived in the private house with a backyard. The summer is very hot in Baku, children play with water all the time. There was a big pool in our backyard. Once we were playing with water there, pouring it in mugs, running and watering each other. I wanted to pour water over my sister, but I couldn’t find the mug. Instead, I found an opened tin can with sharp edges which previously had green peas inside. I poured some water into my tin can and tried to throw the water over my sister. But the tin can jumped from my hands and hurt my sister’s head. Lala was seriously injured and started bleeding.
I was shocked by this situation. It was the first time I saw someone bleeding. It certainly wasn’t a serious wound, but it hit me I could lose a very special person, my sister. This thought shook me. I can picture this scene in my head even now. Many years later, I decided to embody it and to transform the story into a piece of art. This is how this painting was born. It has the color of dried blood and is named after my sister Lala, but I have depicted one famous actress in it.