“By exchanging pysankas we pass on positive energy”

“Good afternoon! Welcome to the Oleksandr Saienko Studio,” an elderly woman with a kind smile greeted The Day. This was Nina Saienko, a craftswoman and daughter of the famous artist Oleksandr Saienko, who is called a monumental artist. On Easter eve 12 orphans and children with impaired hearing (who attend this art studio on a regular basis) came to a pysanka-making master class, conducted by Nina and her daughter Lesia Maidanets-Saienko, who is also a successor to her family’s artistic tradition.

Oleksandr Saienko was deaf-mute since his childhood (after having scarlet fever at the age of two). With this in mind, his daughter and granddaughter taught their crafts to the children who also have hearing disabilities, so that their every talent is revealed and realized itself.

For children it was a real holiday, because everything was real and proper: paints, melted wax, sticks for painting and traditional Ukrainian ornaments. They diligently painted the ornaments: younger children – on krapankas, and older ones – on pysankas.

“Everyone should learn to paint pysankas,” Nina Saienko believes, “This is a charm, an ancient symbol. By exchanging pysankas on Easter eve, not only do we exchange our wishes, but we also pass on positive energy, which is an integral part of the spiritual holiday.”

The master class was a brainchild of the Open Ukraine Foundation.

“We have already initiated three Easter master classes on pysanka-making for orphans,” head of the foundation’s monitoring council Terezia Yatseniuk said, “Clearly, these children need warmth and attention. It is no accident that we chose the Oleksandr Saienko Studio as a venue for the master class. Here we can feel not only artistic aura, but humanness and kindness, too.”