Rowan College of South Jersey Music Professor Natalka Pavlovsky with “插图卡罗尔计划," a series of four paintings she envisioned after listening to Ukrainian Christmas carols.
Pavlovsky's paintings — “They're Building a Church in Kutzivka,”“圣徒。,“欢迎收看今晚的节目。,和“谢瑞克。," also known as “Carol of the Bells" — are the focus of this year's holiday celebrations by the non-profit Ukrainian History and Education Center in Somerset, 新泽西.
这是唱圣诞颂歌的季节, holiday cards and family traditions—and Natalka Pavlovsky's “插图卡罗尔计划" intertwines all three to create a musical and visual journey into her Slavic heritage.
Pavlovsky, a first-generation Ukrainian-American who earned her Ph.D. in Musicology at Princeton University and teaches music at Rowan College of South Jersey (RCSJ), 承认绘画是一生的爱好. 插图卡罗尔计划, which came to life while homebound during the pandemic, includes a series of four paintings she envisioned after listening to Ukrainian Christmas carols, or
koliadky，并阅读经文.
“生动, descriptive nature of the texts first prompted me to start painting them,帕夫洛夫斯基说. “The more I looked into their meanings and historical contexts, the more the project engaged my scholarly interests, and I became more invested in sharing the images as well as the deeply rooted traditions these carols represent."
画完之后, the college professor soon found her academic side kicking into gear, 引导她建立
插图卡罗尔项目 网站. 四首乌克兰颂歌的每一首, 帕夫洛夫斯基分享了她的画作, the verses that inspired her artwork and their symbolic and historical background, 最后是圣诞歌曲的录音.
“The more I painted, the more I researched," admitted Pavlovsky. “Creating the 网站 was the scholar's response to the artist's work. This series of paintings draws entirely on traditional Ukrainian holiday music, as represented by Christmas carols and New Year's songs. The texts are a window into the Slavic past: richly layered tapestries in which Christian concepts nestle comfortably among earlier pagan symbols and surviving traces of pre-Christian traditions."
Pavlovsky's paintings — “They're Building a Church in Kutzivka,”“圣徒。,“欢迎收看今晚的节目。,和“谢瑞克。," also known as “Carol of the Bells" — are the focus of this year's holiday celebrations by the non-profit Ukrainian History and Education Center in Somerset, 新泽西. 她的画已被改编成戏剧
节日贺卡 as part of the Center's Giving Tuesday campaign. 12月. 26, Pavlovsky will speak about her project during their
年度假日筹款活动.
RCSJ colleagues Sylvia Baer and Eoin Kinnarney find the project's “interconnectedness of the arts" fascinating. The three College professors — each accomplished in their fields of music, writing and art—agree about the relationship and have enjoyed discussions on the topic.
“When I saw and read about and listened to the project, 不仅仅是那些画, 不仅仅是教材, 不仅仅是录音. I see the project as symbolic of the transcendence and connection of humanity through the arts,”贝尔说。, a沟通与创新 & 表演艺术教授. “It's all connected, not just one artistic dimension."
“I love that the art is handled with enough detail to describe the subject and the story, but the art also leaves enough room for the viewer's imagination to take off with it,肯尼补充说, who helped Pavlovsky convert the paintings into digital images for her 网站.
“One's passion doesn't have to be one's day job. 艺术一直是我的最爱, though music edged it out when it came to choosing a career,帕夫洛夫斯基说. “I speak to my students about this all the time — that the arts have value for everyone, 远远超出就业范围."
