Olga Yukhno
Little did Olga Yukhno know, when she moved from Pyatigorsk, Russia to Chapin, SC, eleven years ago, that she would be the recipient of the Peoples’Choice Award for the sailboat she crafted for the Sail into Chapin Project. As a child, Olga loved art and went to an art school in her early life, and when it came time for her to choose her future, she wanted to go to a university and study art. However, her parents didn’t agree with this course of study. “They didn’t think it was a really serious thing to do, and they didn’t think I could make good money, so they did not support me in any shape or form,” said Olga. One of the best linguistic universities was located in her hometown, and because of her love of languages, she attended Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University and received a bachelor’s degree in linguistics. She also obtained a master’s degree in Educational Child Psychology.
Still, undeterred by her parents’ lack of support, Olga moved to Chapin, SC with a plan in her mind and a dream in her heart. She found the move to be difficult, however. “It was a difficult adjustment. I had no problem with the language, because of my linguistics degree. There were many cultural differences and then I realized I wouldn’t be able to set up my metal-working studio as planned because it was much more expensive. I wasn’t able to fulfill any of the plans I had made.” However, eager to create, Olga researched and found plenty of ceramics studios. She chose the open ceramic studio at Crooked Creek, and taught herself how to work with clay. “I didn’t take any classes. I was using metal-working techniques to develop my own way of studying the new material and figuring out what to do. I began making jewelry, using the metalworking tools my dad made for me.” She took the jewelry making to another level, and using the same techniques, began creating masks. Olga enjoys working with clay. “I never threw on the wheel. I just wasn’t able to create anything useful or utilitarian.” For her jewelry and masks, Olga creates all of the clay pieces by hand and every single impression is made by hand.
Some of the intricacies she is so very talented at creating can be seen in the sailboat she designed for the Sail into Chapin Project. Olga used clay for the sun, moon, fish, and lake plants, and again, every single impression was done by hand. She mosaicked the other areas on the sailboat, in order to create a multimedia piece. This project took Olga weeks to complete. “I worked twelve hour days, seven days a week for three weeks, and the last two days, I didn’t sleep at all because I needed to finish. This was a huge project and much more complicated than I expected, but I enjoyed participating in it. I haven’t done mosaics in a while, so it gave me that spark of getting back to it.”
Olga’s next project, on which she has already begun working, is a topic that has most likely touched many people: Dementia. While living in Chapin, Olga had a friend whose mother ‘adopted’ her. This woman had already been diagnosed with dementia, and Olga witnessed her heartbreaking decline. Olga decided she needed to do something to represent all aspects of dementia. She created an installation for the Cultural Center in Savannah, Georgia, called A Very Long Goodbye. She also showed at ArtFields in Lake City, SC. ArtFields is one of the biggest art competitions/festivals.
A Very Long Goodbye, contains two sculptures representing someone with dementia. “A room was built for me, and when you walk in, you see ceramic plaques with photographs on them. At first, they are all in perfect rows, and the photos are of things that make us ‘us’, such as smelling a flower, having coffee, or cooking our favorite dish. As you proceed into the room, you notice there are more gaps in the photos. Towards the end, you can see it’s not organized rows – just random memories, and they just float into nothing. The back wall also has plaques that form a triangle, and at the bottom of the triangle, the plaques begin to crumble. At the very bottom, there is a big pile of pieces from those memories. I aged nails to different degrees to show the loss of memories; how they just go from being shiny new nails, to rusted out nails.”
The first sculpture she created is called Sleeping Mind, and it is representational of when the mind is sleeping, but the person is still very much there. “This sculpture has two bells, a big one in the heart, and a smaller one in the mind. Although it isn’t easy to make connections when one has dementia, the idea is that when that moment of clarity happens, the two bells will ring in unison to wake the sleeping mind and bring the person back to the people who love them.”
The second piece, her latest sculpture in the installation, shows a confused face with the shape of a house on her head. Within the house are many, many staircases, all different and tangled up, “but the idea,” says Yukhno, “is that they’re not lining up with the door next to them or underneath them. This represents the neurons misfiring and connections not being made, thus causing confusion. The person can’t quite get to that clear thought; it’s just on the edge, but they can’t reach it. They forget crucial things about themselves.”
Olga’s goal is to dedicate the next twelve months to creating this entire exhibition about dementia. She is incorporating notes that people were invited to write at one of her previous shows. She said the notes she received were so raw and heartbreaking, and these people had such incredibly personal stories. She also wants to hold free art sessions where family members, caretakers, and professionals can create pieces of art to represent their experiences with dementia. “I want to show as many sides of dementia as possible,” says Yukhno.
In addition to staying busy with projects, Olga Yukhno also serves as the Vice President of the Crooked Creek Art League, and is the director of the McMaster Art Gallery at USC.
