Acrylic on canvas, 120 × 100 cm «The Frog Catcher»
Central panel of an upcoming vertical triptych.
I don’t know if it was the same in your childhood, but in mine, there were ponds everywhere.
Real ponds full of frogs, dragonflies, reeds, water lilies, and tiny living worlds.
We caught frogs carefully just to look at them for a moment.
We listened to them croaking in the evenings.
We watched dragonflies hovering above the water and water striders running across the surface like magic.
Back then, children spent entire summers outside.
Yes, we got bitten by mosquitoes, horseflies, and sometimes ticks. We pulled ticks out without panic. Lyme disease existed, but people simply watched for symptoms and went to the hospital if needed. Fear had not yet replaced curiosity.
And my son dreams about catching frogs too.
One day he finally caught one.
I told this story before — and it became a small tragedy, because the adults around him immediately assumed cruelty where there was only curiosity and wonder.
He only wanted to observe it for a few minutes and then let it go.
That moment stayed with me for a very long time.
Sometimes I feel that modern childhood is becoming smaller and smaller.
More controlled. More fearful. More disconnected from living things.
But children are not born cruel.
Most of them don’t want to hurt animals — they want to understand them. To look closer. To discover something alive and mysterious with their own hands.
Maybe we should trust wonder a little more.
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