By, Christine Uzele
Upper School Art Teacher
Art students at TCA have various options to take art classes at TCA. We offer photography, graphic design, and various art elective. When students get to their junior and senior year, they can elect to take Art Minor or Art Major. These are small class sizes of students who are serious about wanting to take their art skills to the next level with mentorship from me. All students create various art pieces which they enter into the annual ACSI Fine Arts Festival. Students get to pick the medium they want to work with and then receive training in perfecting their skills. Between projects, I assign various smaller art projects they create from woodcuts to egg decorating!
Ukrainian egg decorating is an ancient tradition that I have done at home with my family for many years. The egg is a symbol of new birth and spring. As Christians, the ultimate new birth is the resurrection we share with Christ! This type of egg decorating is far more detailed than normal egg decorating that you may do with your kids and requires a lot more attention to detail. Watch the videos and you will see why (don’t try this at home without adult supervision!).
The Junior and Senior art students have been loving this new art medium and are doing an “eggcellent” job. My first eggs were merely scribbles, but they have skillfully rendered intricate patterns and pictures! I am amazed at how well my students picked up on this art form and have taken it to the next level!
The process involves melted wax, dyes, the flame of a candle and a steady hand. We draw on the eggs with melted wax using a special tool called a Kistka and then dip the egg in various dyes. The wax acts as a resist to the dye. Later, when we remove the wax with the flame of a candle, the intricate designs, stay white or brown (depending on the color of the egg) while the rest of the egg is dyed in beautiful colors.
