Creation

by

Youlia Tkatchouk

About the Piece

A work in progress. Installation began in November 2004 and was completed in March 2005.

The Creation mosaic was commissioned through the State of Illinois Capital Development Board's Art-in-Architecture Program. A committee consisting of College staff, students and community members worked with George Atkinson of the Capital Development Board to select the type of art, the artist and design for the Heath Center piece. Committee member Dr. Hobe Scholz suggested that the piece be a floor mosaic.

Youlia Tkatchouk was selected to design and install the mosaic in the auditorium lobby. The mosaic was fabricated in the artist's Chicago studio over a period of several months, then transported in sections to the site and installed.

• A 12' x 14' floor mosaic, Creation is located in the Heath Center Art Gallery which also serves as the lobby of the Mary Ellen Orr Auditorium, JWCC Paul Heath Center Community Education and Fine Arts Center.
• Composed of thousands of pieces of marble from Italy, China and Canada, which vary in shape and range in size from approximately one-half inch to two inches.
• Colored in an earth tone palette and featuring images representing the arts, literature, poetry and nature: masks (theatre); violin and lyre (music); artist's palette (art); drafting tools and columns (architecture); book, quill pen and mythical winged horse Pegasus (literature and poetry); central orb and birds (nature).

About the Artist

Youlia Tkatchouk, a native of Ukraine, lives in Chicago, where she owns and operates Lia Studio.

She holds degrees from Ivan Trush College of Fine Arts and Lviv Academy of Fine Arts in Ukraine and was involved in an exchange program in art history and techniques at the Wroclaw Higher School of Fine Arts in Poland.

Tkatchouk, a senior lecturer at Lviv Academy from 1993 to 1996, has been affiliated with a number of studios in the Chicago area, including Sara Sold Studio and Skyline Design. She has exhibited extensively and has pieces in private collections in Ukraine, Russia, Spain, France, Germany and the United States.

She is experienced in realistic oil painting and drawing as well as mural painting, fresco, mosaic, encaustic wax painting, stained glass, fiber, glass, and gold leafing.

About the Illinois Art-In-Architecture Program

The Illinois Art-in-Architecture Program was created in 1977 under Public Act 80-241 and has worked to promote and preserve the arts of Illinois by securing artwork of all media for public buildings constructed with state funds. It focuses on the acquisition of artwork by Illinois artists.

The program is administered by the Capital Development Board, which spends one-half of one percent of construction dollars on the acquisition of artwork for new and renovated buildings that will be open to the general public.