"STAV'S STORY"
Stav was born on June 22, 2000, and was the best older sister a little brother could ever ask for. On January 24, 2021, I lost my older sister to suicide after losing a long battle with depression. My older sister, Stav, was the very reason that I am who I am today. She has built me up from the ground and impacted my life along the years. Now, she has impacted my life in total. Stav is not just a brick in the wall, she is the whole wall itself. And it upsets me to say that she can no longer live to show the world who she was and could have been. Death at such a young age is not something we expect. The same way that we see a car accident and think that it will never happen to us, I had seen people experience loss, and never thought that it would be my sister who I will have to lose, especially so young. A tragedy that I still don’t understand. Trauma is not a strong enough word to describe the loss of losing a sibling. It is a pain that I wish no one at such a young age should have to deal with. “Why” is a question I ask myself everyday. Stav was extremely talented and gifted, and it devastates me that she was never able to personally share those gifts with the world. And just because she is not here, does not mean that she’s not here. Because she is. Always. She is in our hearts, she is in our thoughts, she is up in the stars, and every time I look up at night, she is the light that shines on the moon. So in loving memory of my beautiful sister, I have decided to keep her legacy alive by sharing her art with this world. Growing up, Stav would always paint, and I never understood how passionate someone could be about something that seemed so simple. Stav painted with absolute authenticity, and aways painted what she felt and believed. Stav was one of those people with extraordinary talent. One of those people that you look at and wonder... how? When Stav passed away, I began looking deeper into her paintings, trying to understand what they really mean. I felt so upset to see the potential my sister had only after she died. To see how much change and love she could have brought into this world if she was still here. To see how gifted she was, and how I didn't see it before. Wondering how she never put her art into the world, and why I never realized her potential. While looking around her room for more art, my mom stumbled across a wrinkled piece of paper which she handed to me. In Stav's handwriting were written instructions for an Instagram account she was hoping to create in the future: ArtByStav. Her legacy shall live on forever, and we as a community will make sure of it.