Paul Wirhun Arts
Welcome to Paul Wirhun's website featuring art using eggshells whether batiked, painted, or collaged onto found wood.
new work in the studio
Slate Gray day/artist proof, 4”x8”, sumi ink and indigo dye brushed on eggshell on cardstock
Am honored to be included in a Tris McCall article
on what a possible Jersey City art museum might contain
https://jcitytimes.com/heres-what-a-jersey-city-alternative-to-the-costly-pompidou-x-might-look-like-inside/?
Eggmananda, 2023, dyed and batiked eggshell on found wood, 36”x24”x4”
CHECK OUT the Eggman on TARIK TALK - a brand-new podcast featuring artists interviewed by Tarik Mendes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N61UpkMO9J0
READ ABOUT the EGGMAN in Sarah Griesbach’s article in Hoboken Girl
https://www.hobokengirl.com/paul-Wirhun-jersey-city-artist/
America, 2022, eggshell mosaic on found wood, 24’x40”x1”, 2022
PAUL WIRHUN – ART STATEMENT
I have been working on eggshells since I was 8 years old, learning the traditional Ukrainian art of pysanky from my mother. This artistic and cultic use of eggs informs my work to this day - as I believe that eggs are events - not simply objects. With this background I have explored the art of writing (‘pysanky’ is derived from the verb pysaty – ‘to write’) eggs using the same tools as my ancestors while pushing the bounds of expression through influences that surround my life.
In order to infuse new life into this ancient folk art, I have manipulated traditional processes with innovative dyeing & brush techniques, as well as etching, to forge a new visual language to write on this versatile, organic sphere. The facility of the shell for a range of techniques (batiking, scratching, painting, gilding) affords me a great range of visual expression to manifest ideas, events, and fantasies.
Picking up pieces of broken eggshells and reconstructing them into new images, the work of my studio, seems like an apt metaphor for this moment. This process born out of recycling studio detritus has offered me a new way to construct new worldviews. Bringing forward from the past images, designs, and compositions can visually realign how we see our own world in these times.