Maryland college hosts exhibit by Wasyl Palijczuk (04/16/00)

Maryland college hosts exhibit by Wasyl Palijczuk

WESTMINSTER, Md. - Carroll Community College, located northwest of Baltimore, is hosting an exhibit of paintings and sculptures by one of their professors, Wasyl Palijczuk. The exhibit titled "Wasyl Palijczuk: Beneath the Surface," opened on March 19 and is on view in the Great Hall of the college, 1601 Washington Road, through April 26.

Prof. Palijczuk is versatile and creative, both as an artist and teacher. His main interest in art is to foster the imagination and a responsiveness to one's surroundings and to life in general. He believes that a work of art should reflect the artist's thoughts and feelings as well as life experiences and ethnic background. He is more concerned with mood and emotions expressed and their impact on the artist and viewer alike, rather than with any consistency of style or media.

Recently, Prof. Palijczuk has concentrated his work on a series of stone sculptures. His outdoor sculptures are to be found in Taylor Manor in Ellicott City and on the campus of Baltimore City Community College. A steel sculpture titled "Welcome" and a six and one-half ton granite sculpture fountain is on the Western Maryland College campus.

A post-war emigré, Mr. Palijczuk came to the United States in 1950 as a 15-year-old boy from Ukraine, by way of Germany. Upon arrival in New York, he was briefly placed in a children's home and then was sent to a foster home in Baltimore. Upon completing high school, he received two art scholarships. He volunteered for the U.S. Air Force instead, where he supervised a drafting and illustration department in the Strategic Air Command Intelligence Division.

After service in the Air Force, Mr. Palijczuk attended the University of Maryland and continued his studies at the Rinehart School of Sculpture, where he received a M.F.A. degree. He was awarded the Henry Walters European Travel Scholarship, which enabled him to travel to Europe, Asia and Africa.

Prof. Palijczuk has taught for 34 years at Western Maryland College, where he is full professor. He has also taught at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and the Jewish Community Center. He was also director and teacher at the Flat Rock School of Art in Henderson, N.C. for six summer sessions.

Prof. Palijczuk is the recipient of the first Western Maryland College Creativity Award. His works are represented in private and public collections and were accorded numerous prizes and awards. He has participated in over 115 one-man and group art exhibits and is often invited to judge art shows and give public lectures.

Prof. Palijczuk has been a member and the only Ukrainian representative of the short-lived Baltimore Holocaust Committee, a long-time Artist Equity Association member, having served as vice president, program chairman and president. He is a member of the Ukrainian-American Association of University Professors, Baltimore's Ukrainian Educational Association, and the author of the chapter on art in the "Ukrainians of Maryland" Bicentennial book. In 1983 he was invited to serve on the Visual Arts Advisory Panel of the Maryland State Arts Council. He served on the Baltimore-Odesa Sister Cities Committee, the yearly Baltimore Ukrainian Festival, and other Ukrainian community interest.

Prof. Palijczuk is married to Oksana L. Lasijczuk; they live in Baltimore and have two daughters, Ksenia and Natalka.

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