Artist Profile: Teresa Mihalko Harbert

Pysanky is the traditional Ukrainian art of decorating eggs. Egg designs are created through a complicated and time-consuming process of written-wax batik. Most often, traditional folk designs and motifs are used; however, the pysanky artist is only really limited by their imagination and their technique. The art of pysanky has a rich history which includes ties to pre-Christian Slavic deities as well as to later Christian symbolism and specifically the celebration of Easter.

Teresa Mihalko Harbert has been a serious pysanky artist for the last fifteen years. She and her husband, Dave, are some of my closest friends, and it has been a joy seeing her discover, develop, and experience the various forms of artistry that reside within her. Probably the most stirring of her many gifts, Teresa has shared her pysanky in a variety of places, including art galleries and craft shows. Of particular note is a recent gallery showing where Teresa displayed eggs completely void of color—stark black and white—as an expression for the period of Lent. Teresa is based in the Sacramento area.

To find out more about her, as well as the process and art of psyanky, please check out her website, Eggs By Teresa. I especially encourage you to check out her gallery, showing hundreds of chicken, ostrich, and other exotic eggs (and representing thousands of hours of painstaking art). Enjoy!