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Eggs Become Art To Celebrate Life's Rebirth

Reuters/Landov

Ukrainians have been crafting elaborately decorated eggs for thousands of years.

Published: April 08, 2012

by Nancy Shute

But there's an appeal in that vulnerability. "There's part of this sickening horror of knowing you're walking on the edge with this, that I kind of like. Knowing that it could all fall apart at any second."

Chast's designs reflect that fragility, from a worried man alone in a wee rowboat, to a Humpty Dumpty who seems all too aware of his imminent fate.

Traditional Ukrainian pysanky also spoke to those fears. The elaborate patterns were believed to offer protection against evil.

"There's an ancient legend that as long as pysanky are made, evil will not prevail in the world," says Joan Brander, a pysanky artist in Richmond, B.C. She's been making pysanky for more than 60 years, having learned the art of the egg from her Ukrainian relatives.

The pysansky tradition, says Brander, dates back to Ukrainian spring rituals in pre-Christian times. The tradition was incorporated into the Christian church, but the old symbols endure. "A pysanka with a bird on it, [when] given to a young married couple, is a wish for children," she explains. "A pysanka thrown into the field would be a wish for a good harvest."

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