Join Guest Artist Jennifer Domal as she speaks about the ancient art of Pysanky. Pysanky are decorated eggs created using the beeswax resist (batik) technique. The word comes from the verb “pysaty” which means “to write”.
These talismans have a long, rich history among the peoples of Eastern and Central Europe, particularly Ukrainians and Poles. The intricate designs on real eggshells were originally written as requests to gods and goddesses for health, love, wealth, and fertility.
Today, artists continue this tradition, using the same techniques and motifs to create new works on blown eggshells. Their designs honor the past while engaging in dialogue with contemporary artistic practice.
About the Artist:
Through the art of batik on natural eggshells, Jennifer Domal explores the intricate dialogue between cultural heritage and historical decorative arts. Her work reinterprets traditional motifs by writing them with designs drawn from textile patterns, architectural elements, illuminated manuscripts, and period furniture, creating visual narratives that span centuries of craft tradition.
The disciplined process of applying melted beeswax and dye to eggshells creates layered depths of color and pattern. Each artwork emerges through successive applications of wax and dye, building complex structures that tell stories of artistic evolution and interchange. The curved surface of the egg transforms conventional decorative patterns into dynamic three-dimensional compositions.
Despite her allergy to eggs, Domal transforms her potential limitation into an act of artistic alchemy by transmuting a personal health constraint into a medium of creative expression. By merging visual elements from different historical artifacts and traditions, her work examines how cultural motifs evolve and influence each other across time and medium. The distinctive properties of the eggshell as canvas enhance the dimensionality of traditional patterns, while the permanence of the batik process speaks to the enduring power of traditional craft techniques and the stories they preserve.
This fusion of old and new, of different cultural traditions, and of two-dimensional pattern with three-dimensional form, creates pieces that honor the past while engaging in dialogue with contemporary artistic practices.