Volodymyr Slubsky

A ceramist from Vinnytsya region revives Trypillya ceramics. He decorates his woks by mysterious ornaments of ancient Trypillya potters. The master confidently draws skew and wavy lines, circles, rhombs, spirals, curls on pots, plates, jugs, bowls and large amphoras – they are the symbols that people have been using from the ancient times to denote the nature forces.

Creative work

Pots, plates, jugs, bowls, large amphoras – all this Volodymyr Slubsky makes and paints with mysterious ornaments. Patterns for them the artist finds in distant past. Achievements of ancient Trypillya potters impress by their shapes and exquisite drawing. Oblique and wavy lines, circles, rhombes, spirals, curls – all of them are symbols which from the ancient times have been used by people to depict the natural forces. This fact is confirmed by outstanding facts in the historical Bushah (at present – a state nature reservation “Bushah”) where different remains of Trypillya ceramics were found. It’s this fact that inspired the potter in revival of fantastic forms and exquisite ornaments which are difficult to compare with modern computer graphics.

The artist bakes his works himself using firewood in the furnace build as well by himself. He considers this to be an art born by fire. Modern electrical furnaces do not have any similar capabilities.Ceramic items baked in them are beautiful but “cold as the Snow Queen”; at the same time the items from Volodymyr’s furnace are bright or faintly-tender, nicely warm in color kissed by burning furnace fire. In a complicated chain of interactions with clay Volodymyr has mastered the potter’s wheel. But it is necessary to manufacture large forms manually. It takes being simultaneously a worker (mining clay and preparing it for work), a sculptor, a technologist (preparation of paints), an artist, a stove-setter, a heating engineer.