Pysanky: "art on a small canvas"

Barbara Duncan hosted two workshops on Pysanky, the Ukrainian art of egg decorating, on March 21 and 22 in the Crisp Museum at Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus. The workshops included a brief overview of Ukrainian culture, history and language, as well as a live demonstration of design and handling techniques by Duncan.

Pysanky are unlike old-fashioned Easter eggs, “krashanka,” which are eggs died a single color to be eaten on Easter Sunday. Pysanky, or “art on a small canvas” as Duncan described, “are beautifully decorated eggs, which have symbolic designs and are given on Easter as gifts to special people.”

As a retired Southeast professor in the Department of Education, Duncan also provided the meaning behind the egg decorating.

“With the advent of Christianity, eggs symbolize Christ’s resurrection and promise of eternal life,” Duncan said. “From Easter day to ascension it was customary to greet people with ‘Christos voskrese’ and reply with ‘Voistyru voskres,’ meaning ‘Christ is risen’ and ‘He is risen indeed.’”

Motioning to the completed eggs that were on display, Duncan described the meanings behind specific symbols and colors as well. The sun is a symbol for growth, deer are a symbol of wealth and triangles represent the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The color white is a symbol of purity, pink is success, red is love and green is hope.

During the demonstration, Duncan showed how to section off the egg to create pictures in each area. Then the process for melting beeswax into the “kistka,” which is a hot wax stylus. Once that was completed, the students began to work during the demonstration, creating their own pysanka.

After the demonstration, students and community members were able to practice decorating eggs themselves.

"I really enjoyed learning about the symbolism of art and colors within Ukrainian culture. It wasn't just about painting an egg," Southeast student Nysheia Alexander-Haywood said

Haywood said she is excited to attend the event again in the future.

For more information on pysanky and private art lessons, contact Barbara Duncan at bduncan@semo.edu.