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Peasant Magic: Invocations in Wax Art Show
Artist Statement:
Pysanky has been a part of my life from my earliest days. As a child, I always felt the moment of removing the wax was simply magical, to see the final unveiling of the delicate mystery I had laboured on. This was long before I came to know that the symbols written on the egg were meant to be (quite literally) magic! The writer would pour all of their thoughts, prayers, and good feelings into the egg as they wrote them with wax, ensuring a powerful talisman against any ills that might befall the recipient of the completed work.
Because these works were originally created as ephemera, with new ones created in the spring for the upcoming year, we have only inklings of the extensive variety of original motifs from the past. In my own works, I use several traditional motifs as the base and allow my fancy (and indeed, the fancy of the egg – eggs themselves will sometimes dictate how they want to be decorated!) to grow the design organically from there. Some of my eggs will tell a complete story – others start with one basic wish and motif, and the rest of the design is decoration to support and enliven that motif.
This show was conceived as a way to show the diversity of pieces that can be created with the simplest of tools – wax, dye and flame. As the world seems to spin ever faster into the future, with more attention often being paid to screens than to each other, I find I embrace the tranquility and simplicity of creating these pieces with my hands and my heart. I hope my works will allow reflection on the fact that despite the trappings of modern life, the basic human condition has not changed; that as for eons past, we still today love our families & friends, and try to do all we can to protect them from harm. To feel the thread that connects us, in this moment, to the distant past and the distant future.
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