Silvana Waniuk
Born in Germany (in 1938) and raised in Israel, Silvana spent her formative years in a Moshav (village) by the Mediterranean. From an early age Silvana showed strong leaning towards music and art. She studied the recorder, violin and the classical guitar; has a degree in music education and would later make a living as a classical guitarist.
Silvana joined Subud in 1970.
Though involved in the arts since childhood, Silvana became committed to
painting in 1973 after a unique spiritual experience that opened her to her inner creativity.
Silvana immigrated to Canada in 1977 where circumstances demanded a change of focus from music and painting to weaving. She returned to painting in 1986 and has been working and exhibiting steadily ever since.
From the artist
“By and large I am a self-taught artist. My non-figurative, symbolic
visual language is informed by music, Modernism and Abstract
Expressionism.
My work is about making visible that which is not; it is about giving
shape and colour to spiritual and psychological realities. Each painting is
an attempt to answer a specific inner question. The questions respond to
the continuous flux of life, touching a range of interests and experiences
such as the nature of creativity; searching for a deeper meaning of
certain Biblical stories; highlighting unique states of awareness or
expressing stages in one’s endless search for identity.
In the preliminary stage, the answer to a question emerges as a
thumbnail drawing, which when transferred to the canvas becomes the
blueprint for the entire work. I use heavy-body acrylics and pallet
knives. The work progresses in a succession of variations, which I liken
to stages in one’s life. It is a lengthy process demanding a quiet state,
patience and trust.
I can never foresee the end result; always it remains an enigma that is
surprising – a kind of miraculous sum total of the whole journey.”
Silvana Waniuk published a memoir Beyond the Breaker a Subud Odyssey, available at Amazon.
