INNISFAIL – When Maryanne Styner was 12 and visiting her Ukrainian grandmother in Edmonton she encountered thousands of beautiful eggs in a storefront window.
And it said, ‘Ukrainian pysanky,” recalled Styner. “And I thought, ‘well, I'm Ukrainian. How come I don't know about this? So I went home and asked mum, and she said, ‘Oh, you don't need to know that.’ And I said, ‘Yes, I do.”
Five years later in Lethbridge she found a pysanky class; a practice and passion in many eastern Mediterranean countries for thousands of years that was created to symbolize nature’s rebirth in the spring.
“I took it and could not stop,” said Styner. “I still can not stop. I’m still doing it.”
In fact she has been taking and facilitating Ukrainian pysanky art courses for the past 60 years, with her latest classes held March 25 and April 1 at Innisfail's Peace Lutheran Church.
Both courses, which were called The Art of Pysanky Egg Decorating, were sponsored by the Innisfail Art Club (IAC).
About a dozen artists and intrigued citizens attended the April 1 course.
IAC members were present, including Styner, who facilitated the three-and-a-half hour long course to artists and the intrigued; a unique endeavour that involves a multi-layered wax and dye process.
“It just takes patience,” said Styner. “But once you learn it’s quite easy. The average egg takes around three hours to do because the dipping in the dye takes a bit of time.”
Wilma Watson, the president of IAC, said class participants were “thrilled” with the course, adding the club now wants to engage the public with a variety of art forms.
“We're trying to look at all different forms of art and look at different types of things we can activate the community with, and really spark the interest of people within the community to really look at art in a different way,” said Watson. “And to look at it as a way of bringing the community together, and bringing different groups and organizations together so that we can all work together within the town to just really enhance what we can offer.
“The interest has been so high that we're actually looking at potentially doing some others at Christmastime.”
Watson said the club is also targeting opportunities for youth and children.
She added a number of courses are being offered, such as art journaling at the Innisfail Middle School, Mother’s Day cardmaking by children in May, and even having club member Karen Scarlett creating a mural club and getting children involved in mural making.
“We've had two of our members actually teaching an acrylic course to children out at the Oklahoma Community Hall,” said Watson. “We’re just continuing to look at ways that we can entice different programs or look at different programs to bring art to the youth of our community.”
