Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ola Rondiak. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Ola, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My family history has been an essential source of resistance in my life. Stories of my family’s experiences living in Ukraine as well as stories from my maternal grandmother, Paraskevia Michniak, are strong stories that are woven into my art. In 1949 using fishbones for needles, threads from clothing and potato sacks for canvas, my grandmother secretly and at great risk embroidered beautiful pieces of art, while she was in the Gulag. She was sentenced to 25 years of hard labor at the Woman’s Strict Regime Prison in Mordovia, Russia, simply for believing in Ukraine and its right to exist. My grandmother, her strength and tenacity became my source of inspiration. The fact that she lost everything, was forced to do physical labor in prison, and still had the strength to create embroideries, is my wellspring of faith and renewal.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I was born in 1966, to Ukrainian immigrants in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Growing up in America, it was very natural for me to tell everyone that I was Ukrainian. Shortly after Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, my husband and I were married and within the first year of our marriage we moved to Kyiv. The upheaval of patriotism in Ukraine, in conjunction with my children becoming increasingly independent, allowed me to fully immerse myself into my career as an artist. I began creating contemporary female portraits which have emerged as a metaphor for Ukraine, portraying a courageous, free, and determined spirit. I intuitively created a version of my grandmothers unfinished Icon, which my grandmother embroidered in a Gulag after WWII. I collaged this new Icon in a contemporary way, symbolically hoping that this was because Ukraine was finally going to realize itself, which it has, as a sovereign and democratic nation. There was a transformation that happened with the completion of my grandmother’s Icon and I understood that was now my turn to speak loudly for and with the Ukrainian people, as well as for women everywhere experiencing physical and psychological injustices.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Get started. Whatever it is that calls you or interests you, is calling for a reason. It doesn’t mean that that’s where you’re going to end up, but you have to listen to each step along the way. After all, the creative process is a journey and we have to have patience and faith.
Be flexible. It’s important to make goals and focus on them, but at the same time, you don’t want to ignore other opportunities that may come along the way and lead you to your goals in different way that you may have initially anticipated.
Don’t wait for inspiration, provide opportunities for it to show up. Inspiration has a tendency to show up while you’re putting the action in motion. Create a schedule for when you can be committed to your craft and release expectations of the outcome.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
My parents felt it deeply important for us to learn the Ukrainian language, history, and culture. They feared that Ukraine itself could disappear as the language, religion, and culture were being Russified in the U.S.S.R.. Ukraine, as I knew it, became a very strong part of my identity. I attended Ukrainian School on Saturdays, Ukrainian Church on Sundays, and Ukrainian scouting camps during school breaks. My parents were fulfilling a deeply felt obligation to keep Ukrainian culture alive, because on the other side of the Iron Curtain, the very existence of the Ukrainian identity was being systematically exterminated. They feared that Ukraine itself could disappear as the language, religion, and culture were being Russified in the U.S.S.R.. Ukraine, as I knew it, became a very strong part of my identity.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://olarondiak.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ola.rondiak
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/OlaRondiak
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@olarondiak711
