{"id":14811,"date":"2025-04-12T21:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T21:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14811\/"},"modified":"2025-04-12T21:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T21:50:12","slug":"star-wars-artist-fundraising-for-colleague-who-lost-sight-fighting-in-ukraine-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14811\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Wars artist fundraising for colleague who lost sight fighting in Ukraine \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

An artist who has worked on films and shows, including Star Wars: The Mandalorian, is raising funds for a fellow creative who recently lost his sight fighting in the Ukraine war.<\/p>\n

Andrey Kozyrenko, a 3D artist from Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine was wounded in December when a drone exploded near his trench, causing him severe eye damage.<\/p>\n

Mr Kozyrenko, 40, who is recovering in western Ukraine, has had his right eye removed and replaced with a prosthetic.<\/p>\n

His left eye\u2019s retina was damaged, but the optical nerve remains intact with the hope that his vision could be restored in future with possible medical advances.<\/p>\n

\"Explorer<\/a>\"Dan<\/a>\"AndreyAndrey Kozyrenko lost his vision when he was injured while fighting in Ukraine <\/p>\n

Jama Jurabaev, a London-based concept artist and art director who has collaborated with Mr Kozyrenko over the years, is raising funds to help him to adapt, heal and find new ways to create.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most terrible thing to happen to an artist,\u201d Mr Jurabaev told the PA news agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo cut off your hand you could deal with that but for an artist losing your eyesight is the worst.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor artists, it hurts even more, they don\u2019t just look at things, they see them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has not just lost his ability to look at something, but I think what hurts even more is him losing his ability to see things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JamaJama Jurabaev and Andrey Kozyrenko together at a game conference in Ukraine in 2021 <\/p>\n

Mr Jurabaev, who has also worked on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Disney\u2019s live-action adaptation of Aladdin, described his friend and colleague as \u201ckind, creative, brave and resilient\u201d.<\/p>\n

The pair, who worked together for Big Medium Small, a visual media company, had stayed in touch throughout the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the war started, he wasn\u2019t as involved as he was volunteering, helping evacuate people from occupied areas,\u201d said Mr Jurabaev.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe then decided to join the Ukrainian army as he said I\u2019m either going to be hiding forever, or I could just do my duty for my country, which is what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since losing his sight, Mr Kozyrenko will not be able to work in the way he used to be able to.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe might do some form of art, but again it\u2019s not going to be what we did before,\u201d said Mr Jurabaev<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to support him, both financially and just spiritually by always being in touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Jurabaev is hoping that tech companies might help his friend with future treatments to help restore the sight in his left eye.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the fundraiser is to help him cover basic living costs, therapy, mobility support and tools so that can help him express himself through art again.<\/p>\n

To find out more visit Jama Jurabaev\u2019s fundraiser at:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/help-andrey-an-artist-rebuild-his-life-after-losing-h<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An artist who has worked on films and shows, including Star Wars: The Mandalorian, is raising funds for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2606,2000,299,10244,10022,4242,16,657,771],"class_list":{"0":"post-14811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-sight-loss","12":"tag-social","13":"tag-star-wars","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-ukraine","16":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114327206293663025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}