Featured Artist for April 1999

Featured GiveAway by Ginny Barkman Eight Easter Pysanky, 1999, 2 1/4" x 3 3/4" each Waxed and Dyed Eggshell Batik Valued at $800

Cheryl Free Fort Wayne, IN

Eight Easter Pysanky are a congruous group of goose eggs designed especially for the Art GiveAway, also coinciding with the Easter Month of April. They are designed traditionally, showcase color, and incorporate symbolism pertaining to Eastern European folk culture. Springing to life, they represent a fresh creation, while symbolizing Christ's Resurrection. Symbols of spring such as flowers and insects are nestled in detail. A cross and a star of eight points are repeated symbols throughout the different eggs. The cross represents Christ's victory over death while the star symbolizes life itself. Triangles representing the Trinity; The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are also visible. Fine netting serves as a call for followers of Christ to be fishers of men. Eggs often take wax and dye differently. It's a challenge for Ginny to create them as a matched group since each is an individual entity. Mystery prevails until they are completed.


MEET THE ARTIST

Featured Artist Ginny Barkman

Ginny Barkman was born April of 1952 in Columbus, Ohio but now resides in Chase, British Columbia. Her mother has always been interested in drawing and watercolor and Ginny frequently sketched growing up. From her earliest memories, she recalls sculpting from clay found in a creek near her home. She once made a polar bear out of clay and baked it in her home kitchen oven. She drew on everything from the pages in her books to the frost on a window pane. She especially liked making paints out of berries, flowers and mosses.

Art was her preferred subject through the school years and she wanted to continue her education in this field, but felt her family did not want her to pursue it. (Apparently this was not entirely true, but she perceived it to be this way.) She eventually justified the whole decision about ignoring art school by rationalizing that if she was to make art her career, she would just not enjoy it. So she studied along the lines of science which she also enjoyed. Her studies in college included a few art courses to fulfill the humanities requirements for her Bachelor of Science degree. When finished, she truly felt empty as far as teaching in the sciences. She didn't favor the classroom situation for which she was trained and teaching math and algebra at a technical college she also found unfulfilling.

In the midst of her career frustration, Ginny became interested in Ukrainian Eggs, first seeing them in magazines and wanting to learn the technique. Beginning to explore the medium with books and tools, she realized it was really a batik technique and over the years has experimented with many different design ideas, including traditional and experimental subjects. She is intrigued by the limitations of the technique and pushes it to the outside edge of its possibilities. Ginny experiments with the impossible but prefers to stay within the guidelines of the traditional art. Her mathematical mind's eye provides an advantage of drawing flat designs on the curved surfaces and she enjoys making something curved look square at first glance. A good understanding of perspective is really important, as Ginny has mastered this aspect of the art.

The process starts with natural egg shells from chickens, white or brown shells, duck eggs (light blue), goose eggs or ostrich eggs. Her dyes are extremely strong aniline compounds that dye very vividly. Any holes in the empty eggshells are plugged with casting wax. She uses both beeswax and a stylus called a kistka to wax her designs. The kistka is little more than a stick with a hole drilled in it at one end with a copper funnel tied on with copper wire. This tool is then filled with beeswax and heated over a candle. The liquid wax can then be "written" onto the eggshell. The Ukrainian word for an egg decorated in this way is "pysanka" or the plural, "pysanky" and is derived from the Ukrainian word meaning "to write". She also uses an electric tool with a funnel and finds she is able to see her work much better when using this tool. Ukrainian egg work is extremely hard on the eyes because it becomes darker and darker as the dyeing progresses. On top of that, as one repeatedly looks into the candle and back to the egg to write, eyesight almost completely disappears. Even without the candle, she finds her eyes cannot see "straight" for nearly a half-hour after putting her work down.

She says, "Eyesight will eventually be my downfall. As soon as I can no longer see my work in progress, I will have to stop. I work far too long at a stretch for my eyes, but when I stop after short intervals, I find that I cannot remember what has been done and what has not been done. It is terrible to find something that has been forgotten due to 'obscurity'. Sometimes it can be corrected and at other times it is too late. I don't believe it is possible for me to create a perfect egg even though I strive for it."

After all the wax is removed by heating, she coats the eggs with a polyurethane finish which prevents the dyes from running. She used to make all her smaller eggs, including goose eggs, on raw un-blown eggs, blowing the finished eggs when necessary. The insides of chicken eggs will eventually dry out after about 6 years. But chance of preservation throughout this time is not good and largely dependent upon temperature and humidity. And blowing finished eggs does have its drawbacks, too. As her work becomes more and more complex, she has opted to blow out the eggs prior to decorating them. This makes it more difficult to dye them but she assures, "at least their chance for long-term survival is greater."

	Looking at a close up of a design, will give you an improved sense of the intricate lines that shape the egg to its finish. Patience and perseverance are a necessity in this art form.
Close up of a giveaway goose egg

Nature is a grand inspiration for Ginny and her digital camera accompanies her on many walks. She loves to photograph patterns and she'll take pictures of scenery, flowers and animals but the patterns intrigue her far more. She enjoys photographing a patch of lichens for the irregularity or the center of a daisy for its pure geometric arrangement. These designs will eventually show up in her eggs in some shape or pattern. At times, she'll see something in her mind and cannot get over it until drawing it on an egg. She'll then draw on paper but will not be convinced of the design until it is actually created on the curved surface.

She loves Melissa and Erica, her 2 children who have sustained her through the years with their love. She is divorced, but remarried and they are no longer at her side. Ginny has to rely more on memories than anything else because of their great distance from one another. She has taught them both the art of Ukrainian Egg decorating and each learned at a very young age. Ginny has kept most of their little treasures and received beautiful eggs as Christmas gifts from her younger daughter this past year. She believes that in teaching them this art, they have a part of her that will persist long after she is gone.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ginny often finds herself sleepless in the early hours of the morning. She does a lot of creating in her mind at that time and it often means getting up and putting her ideas into action. Currently, she spends all her time working on her own creations, whether it be Ukrainian Eggs, her website, photography or her garden. She appreciates the opportunity of finally creating for herself since the past has been focused on the agenda of others or a variety of obligations. She realized that this creative force is necessary for her to be who she really is. To have deadlines is "deadly" for Ginny. In this situation she'll become "immobilized" rather than "pushed to perform". She tends to create her own deadlines that are well in advance of the true ones. Then she feels she is not being pushed from anyone other than herself. She truly believes that when she works, she has no agenda but her own. Ginny has made custom designs over the years and her work has been shown in a local shop in the small village where she resides. Ginny is a bit isolated from the art community but pursues her creations regardless and has plans for her work to someday be available in the Vancouver area.

	The front and side views of a goose egg created in commemoration of the 1998 Adam's River Sockeye Run. Again, intricate detail is forever present in Ginny's creations.
Goose Egg (2 views) $100

Her husband inspires her by allowing her to be exactly who she is with no strings attached. Of course, she reciprocates in kind. They both accomplish a lot together and much apart, but she says it's just more enjoyable together. He is a carpenter and has his own creative ideas that are more concrete and logical. Ginny's ideas are less concrete and more a formulation of something in her mind. If she puts her idea onto paper it becomes more of a "plan" for him. She is always asking him to build something impossible, but Ginny feels with a little negotiation and adjustment, impossible often becomes possible.

As a child, Ginny read just about anything from fiction to non-fiction. She read Scientific American Magazine from cover to cover at age 10, even though she understood less than one quarter of what was printed. She read the encyclopedias and her collection of the Book of Knowledge. She even read the dictionary and the telephone book. Really anything she could get her hands on: newspapers, labels on canned goods, even the backs of cereal boxes! Her favorite books are 7 computer books, most measuring around 2 1/2 inches thick. Computers intrigue her and give her the freedom to express herself through the written word and graphic programs. Yet at the same time, they hold a mystery yet to be discovered and tackled. She feels the Internet is a wealth of information and is simply endless on all subjects. She has taken full advantage of it and has also indicated that she spends far too much time gleaning more and more from it. It seems to have replaced all the books she's read and reread over the years.

A large goose egg. Notice the the size of the egg when comparing it to the size of the hand.
	Goose Egg Design $ 100 Sold

What really makes her tick is being able to figure out the impossible. She likes the challenge and will work incessantly on a problem until it is solved. This is most likely why she has the perseverance to create Ukrainian eggs since they require perseverance to the extreme.

Ginny's Ukrainian eggs are exceptionally reasonable to own or for any gift purchase. Chicken eggs are generally $35 to $50 with a few really simple things in the $10 to $25 range.You will be in awe of these perfect little creations. Even the president of ArtQuest has purchased a number of her creations to give family members for the Easter Holiday. And now that they have been dangling so near on beautiful ribbons, it will be hard to give them up for what they were intended!

	A group of Goose Eggs lying here and there. All are for sale.
A representation of goose eggs recently designed $50-$100 each

Contact the Artist

Please Email ArtQuest for sales information

ARTIST STATEMENT

Each piece of artwork I create captures something of my inner self. When I look at the white egg shell, I begin to dream a new dream, so-to-speak. I create images in my mind of the waxing and dyeing process and the finished egg. I often wonder whether what I imagine is possible or not. I look to create something, but realize that the egg itself decides what it will ultimately be, not me. I can only begin the process and work in seemingly separate stages. The final combined results are hidden from me until I decide that the egg is done. Once I remove the wax, nothing else can be changed. I wish everyone could experience the moment of revelation of the final colors and design as I am able to do. Each stage of the design is done simplistically, but the combination of all parts revealed is extremely complex. Some times the anticipation causes me to work feverishly to the end with long hours. I want to see the final finished egg that has been hidden for so long. To me, this is the enjoyment of creation, to see the end result and marvel at it. ~ Ginny Barkman