Sky Hoffos Exhibits his Creative Work at Alberta Council for Ukrainian Arts

Sky Hoffos Exhibits his Creative Work at Alberta Council for Ukrainian Arts

Rosanne Fortier - News Correspondent

Sky Hoffos loves arts and crafts.

He also shares a love of his Ukrainian heritage and very fond memories of Vegreville and his time spent as an Art and Construction teacher at Vegreville Composite High School.

Currently, Hoffos is showcasing a 70 piece art exhibit at the Alberta Council for Ukrainian Arts (ACUA) until February 5.

His artwork consists of painting, stone carving, leatherworking, digital illustration and photography. Over half of his new collection were painted pysanka style and all are available for viewing and sale through the ACUA Facebook page and his website.

“My love of Ukrainian symbolism and the beautiful imagery written on Pysanky has really driven me to create this art style that I am using for the art show “Element”. These paintings are made in the same way that we write Pysanky, although instead of covering layers in wax on an egg, I am covering colour layers with tape on a canvas, and at a large scale,” Hoffos said.

When Hoffos was asked what he did to get his artwork exhibited he said, “I applied to be an Exhibiting Artist for ACUA a year ago, and I was selected to show my art alongside local artist Larysa Matchak. Our art really compliments each other, as Larysa’s art consists of thick paint and images of nature, and my art is made up of very crisp and geometric lines.

“I made a painting in honour of the Vegreville Pysanka Egg using my Pysanka painting style on an oval-shaped canvas, using similar colours,” Hoffos added.

Hoffos is also a blacksmith and said he started working at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village (UCHV) in the summer of 2012, and he started blacksmithing at the

Sky Hoffos creates one of his pysanka writing paintings.

(Sky Hoffos/Submitted Photo)

Vegreville Pysanka Festival Pioneer Village as a blacksmith demonstrator in 2013.

When I asked Hoffos how his interest in the multi-disciplinary craft of blacksmithing and large-scaled paintings based on the process of pysanka writing began, he said, “I have been painting since I was a child, but I do have a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the UofA focused in Painting and Sculpture. I have always been an artist and creator, and I cannot stop learning. Every time I discover something new, I just need to try it and create something with it, which has turned me into a very multi-faceted artist and craftsman.” Hoffos said.