Egg-Ceptional
Beauty
Penn Hills resident carries on centuries-old tradition of Ukrainian egg art.
BY DAVID GOLEBIEWSKI
M arilan Caito fondly recalls gathering at the kitchen table with her mother, Helen, and a handful of neighbors on the weekends. They would pray for a steady hand and a steady eye, and then they would practice“ pysanky”— a style of Ukrainian egg artwork that dates back more than 1,000 years.
Caito, a Penn Hills resident who is of Carpatho Rusyn descent, has served more than 30 years as an instructor of Ukrainian Easter Egg classes at local colleges and community centers in the Pittsburgh region. On April 6 from 6 to 7 p. m., Caito will hold an egg painting demonstration at the Penn Hills Library. If there is sufficient enrollment, she will conduct three two-hour sessions on May 4, 11 and 18 at the same location. All sessions are free and open to the public.
“ Everyone has at least one God-given talent,” Caito says.“ I can’ t sing or dance, but I can paint eggs. Teaching is a way for me to keep alive something that’ s so special and unique, and share it with as many people as I can. When I’ m sharing it, I can feel my mother with me. I think that she would be proud.”
The word pysanky derives from the verb pysaty, which means“ to write.” In the pysanky tradition, you use a tool called a“ kiska” and melted beeswax to create elaborate, often geometric, designs in a variety of colors. The pysanky style favors shades of white, yellow, orange, red and black.
“ You take a white egg and draw a basic design,” Caito explains.
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