Pysanka Mosaic

Artist knows egg-actly what to do

by Darlene Polachic
— Supplied Photo

In the lead-up to Easter, the Ukrainian Museum of Canada is featuring an art exhibit with a difference. ‘Pysanka Mosaic’ by David Wasylyshen takes the art of pysanky, or Ukrainian Easter Eggs, to a whole new level. Wasylyshen creates vibrant and elaborate mosaic works of art using broken pieces of pysanky made from chicken, duck, or goose eggs. 

“Each piece is unique,” he says. “It cannot be duplicated or mass produced. Designing and creating each mosaic requires much time, effort, and patience.”

Wasylyshen is a stained glass artist who began working with the traditional Ukrainian Easter egg after his father passed away. “My father, Ted, was the first person to develop a technique for making pysanka mosaics,” he says. “Before he passed away in 1995, he taught his technique to me. Dad’s method took hundreds of hours to create just one small mosaic. He made only four. Three went to family members; one was purchased and exhibited in the National Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec. Over the past five years, through trial and error, I have refined and perfected his basic process.”

Wasylyshen cuts or breaks traditionally decorated Ukrainian Easter eggs into pieces which are then used to create the elaborate mosaic designs.

“I have a number of women across Western Canada who write pysanky for me,” he says. “They know the kind I want. Or, people will give me eggs that have broken or they no longer care to keep. They love the idea that I’m recycling the eggs.”

Pysanka mosaic is totally geometric work, Wasylyshen adds, “but then pysanky themselves are very geometric. I try to include a traditional cross in every piece I do in order to give it proper respect. Pysanky, after all, are connected with and a symbol of the religious commemoration of Christ’s death and resurrection at Easter.”

The exhibit at the Ukrainian Museum of Canada has as its centrepiece a large three-dimensional mosaic entitled ‘In the Begining..Today...Forever...’ It was commissioned by the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada, Princess Ol’ha Branch at St. Michael’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Winnipeg to mark its 50th anniversary.  “The mosaic contains much symbolism,” Wasylyshen says. He points out 13 strategically placed eggs that represent Christ and his twelve disciples. All the eggs are connected to each other except for one, which represents Judas who turned in Jesus for a few pieces of silver. In the very centre of the mosaic is an egg written with the logo of the Ukrainian Women’s Association. Ten eggs represent the organization’s founding members. A white X in the background signifies St. Andrew’s Cross. (St. Andrew was the Apostle who brought Christianity to Ukraine. He was crucified on an X-shaped cross.) Two egg halves are inscribed with The Lord’s Prayer--one in English, the other in Ukrainian. Says Wasylyshen, “Eighty-five percent of the women in the organization donated eggs for the mosaic.”

There are about 30 pieces in show. “I have tried to combine ancient, traditional, and contemporary modes,” Wasylyshen says, “along with ultra-contemporary mosaics in stained glass.” He also has a glass sculpture involving a pysanka mosaic design. This was created with sheets of glass molded together by a fusing process. He describes it as ‘pysanky frozen in time.’

Among the pysanka mosaics in the exhibit is a group created in the Trypillion style. “These are modelled after the very early Easter eggs that used only three colours--brown, black, and white. The black and brown dyes would have come from soil and leaves,” Wasylyshen says. “The designs are primitive--dots, diamonds, wavy lines. The Trypillion culture was discovered in 1897 in the Lviv area. It flourished in Ukraine 7,000 years ago.”

A new type of pysanka mosaic that Wasylyshen has developed and is unveiling in Saskatoon is Mosaics in Glass. Here, he has melded his first love, stained glass, with Pysanka Mosaic in very striking contemporary-looking creations.

Wasylyshen came into his own as a pysanka mosaic artist when he won an award in the Emerging Prairie Artist category at the 2010 Prairie Excellence Show in Winnipeg. Since then, his works have been in demand all over North America and in many parts of Asia, as well.

“I love doing this,” he says. “I grew up being involved with Easter egg-making with my parents, Ted and Evelyn. Traditionally, people displayed them at Easter, then putting them away in a closet for the rest of the year. Dad had a vision to display them in a more permanent way.”

“I have a lot of people bringing me their Easter eggs,” he says. “Often it’s kids who don’t want the old eggs, but they do like the mosaics. They also like the idea of Grandmother’s handiwork being put into contemporary art. In doing this, I have captured all the audiences which, for an artist, is Mission: Accomplished.”

Saskatoon is the first stop on Wasylyshen’s Pysanka Mosaic tour. The exhibit will be at the Ukrainian Museum of Canada from March 1 to April 30. From here, it will travel to Winnipeg, Chicago, New York and Toronto.

“The public can meet David Wasylyshen at a reception at the Museum on April 30 at 3 p.m.,” says Museum director and CEO Janet Prebushewsky Danyliuk. She adds: “We’ve seen thousands of pysanky over the years, but to see a new interpretation of this loved tradition is very exhilarating for us.”

Wasylyshen says his favourite response to his art came in an e-mail received recently from a man in Minneapolis. It read: “Dave, you’ve just given thee ole traditional beautiful Ukrainian Easter egg a shot of Botox. Beautifully done!”

To learn more about David Wasylyshen and his artwork, visit www.pysankamosaic.com.