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30 OUR LIFE • January-February 2023 When the call went out from UNWLA national headquarters in 2021 to all branches to com - memorate the 150th anniversary of Lesia Ukrainka’s birth (Larysa Kosach Kvitka was born on Feb - ruary 25, 1871), we were all still living under the confines of the Covid pandemic lockdown: no public gatherings, no commem - orations, no theater, no concerts, no church services. How could we possibly pay tribute to Ukraine’s greatest woman poet and writer, a woman that Ivan Franko him - self called “the only real man in Ukrainian writing,” without actu - ally assembling and interacting? What could we do that would be original and inspiring, that would historically capture Lesia’s signif - icance and at the same time be beautiful? What significant com - memorative act could we accom - plish under the rules of the pan - demic? It pays to have a talented artist among your members in moments like these. Marta Legeckis is her name, the paintbrush and calligra - phy pen are her game. I immediate - ly called Marta when the request pinged in my email and suggested that she paint a portrait of Lesia. The prolonged silence at the other end of the line told me my idea was not as stellar as I thought. “I don’t do portraits,” Marta re - plied. “But what if I did a callig - raphy of one of Lesia’s poems?,” she proposed. Having seen some of Marta’s cal - ligraphy, I was immediately sold on the idea, and we proceeded to discuss which poem should be captured in this future work. Marta’s father Osyp Huley, a liter - ature professor in Lviv and later in Ukrainian schools in the U.S., loved Lesia Ukrainka and was very fond of Contra Spem Spero (“Against all hope, I hope”), Le - sia’s magnificent ode to hope. We agreed this was the perfect choice, I sent Marta the text of the poem, and the rest is ... not quite, but almost, history. First published in 1893, the poem was written as Lesia waged an ul - timately losing battle with tuber - culosis of the bone. Decimated by the then-incurable disease, Lesia nevertheless refused to give up, finding solace, hope, inspiration, and strength in her work. When I saw Marta’s finished work, I was quite literally blown away. It looked absolutely gorgeous! The text in elongated white, almost gossamer-like script circling on pale blue-gray textured hand- made paper, the last stanza in prominent purple with splashes of star-like points of contrasting yel - low, as well as pastel hues pushing the script forward and a crowning, gold-leaf spiral suggesting end - lessness and eternity. The entire piece is filled with movement, the Irena Chalupa , President, Branch 78, Washington, DC Marta Legeckis Some of Marta’s work for the White House. LESIA UKRAINKA’S CONTRA SPEM SPERO Through the Art of Calligraphy different scripts complementing each other, soaring towards one another, almost like the cosmic nebulae recently captured by the amazing Webb space telescope. Marta Legeckis worked on the piece for three weeks. The last stanza of the poem took its place on the paper first, sections of the letters elongated by the edged pen. Так, я буду крізь сльози сміятись, Серед лиха співати пісні, Без надії таки сподіватись, Буду жити! Геть, думи сумні! The beginning of the poem fol - lowed, taking its place on the left side of the work, swirling up to expand into a crescendo of stanzas ending beneath the last verse. The gold leaf spiral com - pletes the work with suggestions of infinity, the endless circulari - ty of thought, even the darkest thoughts that whirl in one’s mind only to be erased by the uplifting energy of hope. Marta says she initially was not
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