is an artist, an animal lover, a teacher and a native of Ukraine. A resident of Chicago for more than 30 years, Diadenko uses her talents to teach a traditional form of folk art and raise awareness about the ongoing war in the country where she was born.to benefit the Red Cross in Ukraine — ultimately raising nearly $50,000.Now the artist, a Golden Apple Award-winning teacher, is giving lessons on how to make this traditional form of folk art that first flourished in the 16th century.
“A few 100 years later,” Diadenko continued, “a lot of self-taught artists who lived in different villages started to paint on glass in reverse, but their scenes were mostly village scenes, so they would draw peasants, animals, fields and flowers. It was a primitive style of painting, but it looked very nice, very authentic, very bright, and always with a black outline.”
“He start picking them up from Eastern regions and start feeding them and giving them medical treatments with his friend, a veterinarian,” Diadenko said. “I asked him, ‘How many cats and dogs did you save?’ I say, ‘100, 200, over 200?’ He told me, ‘After 200, we stopped counting because we were just saving them and saving them.’”
“My first class had about 23 people,” Diadenko said. “I had a dentist, a journalist, teachers, an accountant — and some of them had no idea how to paint. I told them not to worry. I have a lot of sketches of my own that I gave them because I’m really careful about copyright issues.”