Tanya Zivkovic, a Calais-based artist specializing in pysanky, the traditional art of Ukrainian painted eggs, is giving lessons on the craft at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village.

Zivkovic said her interest in the art stems from discovering it while taking a Russian-language class in high school. While her interest waned for a while, she eventually took up painted egg making again after moving to Maine. Her work has been sold at the Center for Maine Craft in Gardiner, and displayed at the State House in Augusta.

Zivkovic, who began teaching the art of pysanky again last year, said that, while she usually tries to remain nonpolitical, there has been a surge of interest in her eggs since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Initially, Zivkovic, who does not produce her eggs on a large scale, referred people to other artists.

However, after a contentious meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last February drew renewed attention to Ukraine’s plight, Zivkovic felt it was time for her to step forward and offer egg-making classes as a way of mending fences and promoting peace. Since then, Zivkovic has taught classes across the state, from Calais Elementary School to Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester and Portland Adult Education.

Zivkovic’s course comes one week prior to the celebration of Easter by Western churches on April 5, and two weeks before the celebration of Easter by the Orthodox Church, the majority faith in Ukraine, on April 12.

According to the University of Kansas, the art of pysanky making, or pysankarstvo, predates the Christianization of the region, with ceramic pysanky dating back to 1300 BC. Although the art was later reinterpreted through a Christian lens, several pagan symbols survive, including spirals and flowers that originally represented Slavic gods. Pysanky making has seen a cultural resurgence since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and was recognized by UNESCO as part of humanity’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2024.

While Zivkovic has never traveled to Ukraine, she has met several Ukrainian pysanky artists through her work. They have been encouraging and welcoming toward outsiders learning and looking to continue the tradition, she said.

Six people attended Zivkovic’s first course at the Shaker Village last weekend. One of the students, Ash Knapp, said she had become interested in pysanky from watching videos. She started working on her own eggs last spring, but when she saw that Zivkovic was teaching at the Shaker Village, she took advantage of the opportunity to learn from someone who knows the craft. As a teacher, Knapp said she knows how important it can be to learn from someone who is an expert in their craft.

Janine Wynn, a resident of Temple, Maine, who attended a class, has a personal connection to Ukraine, having served with the Peace Corps in a western Ukrainian mountain village in the late 2010s. She said her time in the village was tumultuous, as several villagers assumed she was a spy. She fell in love with the country’s culture, revisiting several times to learn about Ukrainian crafts and food. In addition to attending the egg making course, Wynn recently made a batch of varenyky, a potato-based dish similar to Polish pierogies.

Student Joyce Burrow said she was interested in crafts such as knitting, quilting and sewing, and wanted to learn more about the traditional crafts of Ukraine.

Zivkovic is teaching two classes at the Shaker Village. The second is scheduled for Saturday, April 4. Tickets can be purchased for $85, or $80 for members of the Friends of the Shakers, and there was one slot open as of Tuesday morning.