Paul Luniw
born 1951
BiographyMaster pysanky artist Paul Luniw was born in Halifax, England in 1951 to a Ukrainian immigrant family. He learned to “write” Ukrainian pysanky, decorative and symbolic Easter eggs, from his mother as well as friends and relatives from the Ukrainian community and in Ukrainian school. Father Paul moved to Connecticut in 1994 and currently serves as parish priest at St. Michael’s Ukrainian Church in Terryville.
Pysanky require patience, concentration, and precision; for Father Paul, the process of designing and writing eggs becomes like a prayer, a meditation, and a service to the world. His pysanky designs are based on the traditional ones that go back hundreds if not thousands of years and represent the natural elements of the universe, such as the moon and sun, stars, flowers, and animals. With the advent of Christianity in Ukraine in 988, symbols such as fish, churches, and crosses blended in with the pagan designs. Ukrainian embroidery has many similar designs. Colors play a symbolic role as well, with red signaling happiness and love, yellow as prosperity and fertility, green promoting abundance, and blue for health. Father Paul works with several types of egg, including ostrich, rhea, duck, goose, quail, chicken, and finch.
People from Eastern European communities as well as others commission eggs, and Father Paul also gives pysanky as gifts, including a series of 12 eggs symbolizing the 12 apostles presented to Pope John Paul II in Rome while studying there. He has given demonstrations in England, in Rome to seminaries and ecclesiastical institutions, and in the U.S. to church groups such as Our Lady of Czechostowa in Turners Falls, Massachusetts and at events such as the Old Deerfield Museum Eastern European Festival. Father Paul demonstrated at the Lowell Folklife Festival in 2006. During a two-year apprenticeship in 2004-2006, Father Paul Luniw taught Carol Kostecki advanced techniques of Ukrainian egg decoration including more difficult ways of dividing the egg for designs, figurative designs (especially icons), etching designs, new color schemes, and varnishing techniques.
Father Paul’s eggs have been collected and exhibited in the Ukrainian Museums in London and Manchester, England; in Rome at the Holy See, St. Sofia’s, St. Sergus and Bachus, and at St. Josaphat’s Seminary; and in the U.S. in Philadelphia at jewelry shops and churches. He has been featured on the BBC program Blue Peter, and WTNH/Channel 8 News in Hartford twice. An hour-long program was broadcast about his pysanky by Nutmeg Television in 2005. In 2008, Father Paul won a prestigious Fund For Folk Culture Individual Artist Fellowship. Father Paul was awarded a Connecticut Office of the Arts Folk Arts Fellowship in 2015.
Pysanky require patience, concentration, and precision; for Father Paul, the process of designing and writing eggs becomes like a prayer, a meditation, and a service to the world. His pysanky designs are based on the traditional ones that go back hundreds if not thousands of years and represent the natural elements of the universe, such as the moon and sun, stars, flowers, and animals. With the advent of Christianity in Ukraine in 988, symbols such as fish, churches, and crosses blended in with the pagan designs. Ukrainian embroidery has many similar designs. Colors play a symbolic role as well, with red signaling happiness and love, yellow as prosperity and fertility, green promoting abundance, and blue for health. Father Paul works with several types of egg, including ostrich, rhea, duck, goose, quail, chicken, and finch.
People from Eastern European communities as well as others commission eggs, and Father Paul also gives pysanky as gifts, including a series of 12 eggs symbolizing the 12 apostles presented to Pope John Paul II in Rome while studying there. He has given demonstrations in England, in Rome to seminaries and ecclesiastical institutions, and in the U.S. to church groups such as Our Lady of Czechostowa in Turners Falls, Massachusetts and at events such as the Old Deerfield Museum Eastern European Festival. Father Paul demonstrated at the Lowell Folklife Festival in 2006. During a two-year apprenticeship in 2004-2006, Father Paul Luniw taught Carol Kostecki advanced techniques of Ukrainian egg decoration including more difficult ways of dividing the egg for designs, figurative designs (especially icons), etching designs, new color schemes, and varnishing techniques.
Father Paul’s eggs have been collected and exhibited in the Ukrainian Museums in London and Manchester, England; in Rome at the Holy See, St. Sofia’s, St. Sergus and Bachus, and at St. Josaphat’s Seminary; and in the U.S. in Philadelphia at jewelry shops and churches. He has been featured on the BBC program Blue Peter, and WTNH/Channel 8 News in Hartford twice. An hour-long program was broadcast about his pysanky by Nutmeg Television in 2005. In 2008, Father Paul won a prestigious Fund For Folk Culture Individual Artist Fellowship. Father Paul was awarded a Connecticut Office of the Arts Folk Arts Fellowship in 2015.
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