FOCUS ON THE ARTS: Carole Romanyk, the weaver (01/26/97)

FOCUS ON THE ARTS: Carole Romanyk, the weaver

by Orysia Paszczak Tracz

WINNIPEG - When it comes to Ukrainian folk arts, my pysanky are pretty good, even up close, if I do say so myself; so is my embroidery, in a variety of stitches (if you don't inspect the back too closely). I admire fine woodcarving and pottery, even though I do not have an interest in doing it myself. But I really envy and admire Carole (Karolina) Romanyk, because she can weave. Oh, how she weaves! One of these days I may attempt to learn, but ....

Visitors to an exhibit of her weavings to mark the re-opening of the renovated Manitoba Branch of the Ukrainian Museum of Canada last year, were tacitly reminded by her work just what a talent and treasure Karolina (as she signs her weaving) Romanyk herself is. She is preserving and developing Ukrainian weaving, a folk art not as common in Canada as embroidery or pysanky.

The Manitoba Branch of the museum is located on the premises of the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Winnipeg, and has recently reopened after major renovations. The Ukrainian Museum of Canada was founded by the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada in 1936, and has its main museum in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (910 Spadina Crescent E., S7H 3H5; telephone: 306-244-3800), with branches in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

Two of the museum's major publications are: "Pysanka: Icon of the Universe," by Mary Tkachuk, Marie Kishchuk, Alice Nicholaichuk, Saskatoon: Ukrainian Museum, 1977; and "Ukrainian Embroidery Designs and Stitches," compiled by Nancy R. Ruryk Winnipeg: Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada, 1958.

Karolina (Carole) nee Toporoski Romanyk is a native of Pine River, north of Dauphin, Manitoba. Her parents came to Canada with their pioneer parents, her father as a 12-year-old boy in 1897, her mother as a 1-year-old in 1903, both from Zalissia, Borshchiv Region.

Ms. Romanyk began weaving around 1968, but her interest in fabrics and their creation began much earlier. She remembers from childhood the heavy winter shawls worn by the women, shawls that must still have been woven back in Ukraine. One of her great uncles in Zalissia had been a weaver. In Manitoba, her grandfather had sheep, and carted wool and knit socks.

What she finds interesting is that in her community, while these same people had woven back home, they did not in Canada. Ms. Romanyk remembers the "garderoba" [stage costume storage] in the church hall, filled with namitky (finely woven fabric for headdresses similar to wimples), shirts, obhortky (woven long wrap skirts) and other original folk costumes, worn in plays and concerts presented by the community.

"Fabrics always drew me to them I was interested in how the designs and weaves came into the fabric," Ms. Romanyk said. She embroidered, but had not yet begun to weave. During a trip to New Mexico, she was inspired by the native rug weavers. When she did start seriously, it was through the Manitoba Handicrafts Guild, where master weavers gave courses. She studied design and fiber arts in the Department of Clothing and Textiles at the University of Manitoba, and took advanced courses in various cities as they were offered.

At first, she wove regular, traditional, non-Ukrainian designs. Her "Ukrainian line" developed as she became involved with the Ukrainian Museum of Canada. She wanted to adapt Ukrainian designs to a new form, not always traditional, one with which Canadian-born Ukrainians could associate. This idea really developed during a summer workshop at the Banff Center of Fine Arts, Fiber Arts Division, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Museum of Canada. Ms. Romanyk was guided and inspired by Pat Pelech, one of the instructors.

Since those beginnings, Ms. Romanyk has become an expert weaver, has exhibited throughout Canada, and has taught courses in weaving. In her home in Kelowna, British Columbia, Ms. Romanyk has four looms: a 60-inch 12-harness (which enables her to do patterning and double weave), a four- and eight- harness, and a table loom. She prefers working with Scandinavian yarns, which have softer tones, and look more like home-dyed yarns. She has also dyed and spun her own yarns.

Now they can laugh about it, but there could have been serious consequences to her yarn collection. Her husband, Alexander, and she remember how one bag of yarn bought in the southwestern United States seemed to be moving inside. The yarn was "too natural," and had not been processed properly. It was crawling with moth larvae. Her workroom was immediately fumigated.

Ms. Romanyk uses various weaving techniques: tapestry, kylym tapestry, double weave, bound weave, twill and looped (kozhukh-style) weave, among others. She has reconstructed a Bukovynian kylym from a small shredded piece, a treasured keepsake from a mother carried through World War II by the daughter. (A different version of this Bukovynian kylym [a stylized border of roses around a dark center] was in the Winnipeg exhibit.)

She recreates traditional Hutsul, Bukovynian and Podillian tapestries, and also weaves contemporary wall hangings with a Ukrainian flavor. For example, one natural-colored tapestry incorporates korali (coral beads, part of the Ukrainian woman's folk costume). Another frames a traditional colorful Hutsul weave with a looped weave, simulating the fur of the sheepskin coat, the kozhukh. The two poppy-inspired wall hangings are quite different, one a single, large, in-your-face, glorious "mak," the other an almost-abstract profusion of poppies in various shades of red.

Ms. Romanyk is interested in ancient motifs, and has made a Trypillian-inspired hanging, and one with the berehynia/protectress symbol. She has also woven a Ukrainian-style stage costume for a Ukrainian Canadian singer. Her colors range from muted natural shades to the bright primaries.

For a few years, Ms. Romanyk has been working on a book, in English, of Ukrainian weaving patterns, one that would include charts, instructions and color photographs of the weavings. To complete this major project, she still needs to find the financial support of one or more sponsors. She knows there is an interest in Ukrainian weaving, and not only among Ukrainians themselves, and would be interested in hearing from individuals or organizations who could assist in publication costs.

Since this folk art is not as common as pysanky and embroidery, in comparison not that much has been published about Ukrainian weaving in Canada. One small but significant and well-illustrated work on this subject is "Tkanyna: An Exhibit of Ukrainian Weaving," co-edited by Radomir Bilash and Barbara Wilberg. Researched by Ruth Lysak-Martynkiw and Nadia Kreptul, it was published in 1988 in Edmonton by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and Friends of the Ukrainian Village Society (ISBN 0-920862-58-6) and is distributed by University of Toronto Press.

This book provides one explanation as to why weaving did not continue to a great extent among the pioneers to Canada. Even though many took their tools and equipment with them to the new land, "it was difficult, as well as costly, to transport large items from western Ukraine to the Canadian prairies. In the case of weaving tools, often only the accessories and the more complex loom pieces such as the berdo (beater or reed) could be transported here. The pieces too big to take had to be remade in Canada."

Combined with this, the very different climate, shorter growing season, and land practices were not conducive to the growing of large fields of hemp and flax. This was considered too labor-intensive and time-consuming. "The size of the Canadian homestead was also a factor (160 acres)... Thus, little labor could be spared for the perpetuation of narodne tkatstvo (folk weaving)." While weaving polotno (cloth) of linen and hemp declined, wool weaving continued.

In her 1983 University of Manitoba master's thesis, "A Social History of Ukrainian Cottage Weaving in Alberta, 1900 to 1940," Linda M. Lazarowich writes that "tradition is like a web which binds people together through space and time. It is that sense of a historic past that has, in recent years, caused third- and fourth-generation Ukrainian Canadians to search for elements of their early heritage. For some, that quest has focused on hand wovens... For the home weavers of 80 years ago, theirs was an 'art survival' situation, whereas today's products have evolved because of an 'art revival' program. But this is only a natural evolution and growth to be expected in any aspect of material culture. The important fact is that the art continues to grow, flourish and readapt itself to suit the changing times. In doing this, contemporary weavers have based their new fiber art representations on variations of the old country themes..."

Fortunately for us, Karolina Romanyk does exactly this extremely well.

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