Art Demo: Pysanky

Drop by the ICA’s first-floor State Street Corporation Lobby to see Boston-based artist Gretjen Helene demonstrate Pysanky, a Ukrainian egg decorating technique. Observe the batik written-wax method used to fix and resist colored dyes to achieve beautiful, complex designs.

Learn more about this ancient art form, rich with symbolism and traditionally understood to evoke talismanic powers. Afterwards, view contemporary Ukrainian photographer Boris Mikhailov’s portraits in the third floor lobby that similarly capture the beauty and spirit of the Ukrainian people.

Gretjen Helene is a visual artist working with traditional, digital, and alternative photography processes and integrated media, including creating liquid-emulsion photographs on the inside of eggshells. She was taught Pysanky at a young age by her mother and has continued the tradition annually with family, friends, and students. The layering of wax and the subtractive dyeing process of Pysanky has a likeness to traditional and alternative darkroom photography processes. She received her MFA in Fine Art Photography and Integrated Media and now teaches the Teen Photo Collective group at the ICA.