By Yvonne Wright • The Current Contributing Writer
The idea of art taking many forms could not be more accurate in defining a person than in the case of Jim Thorpe artist, Maggie Lukasevich, whose wide range of works demonstrate the artist’s sensitivity for inventing things, and imagination for using her skills in realizing them.
Prolific and experimental, Maggie is a resourceful and relentless visionary with a creative output that is multifaceted. Her body of work is difficult to categorize in one simplistic term; the ever inquiring artist, she expresses herself in a variety of mediums – from high-tech digital to fine art traditional.
Whether inspired by nature, heritage architecture or a passion for life’s diversity, Maggie Lukasevich has been creating and selling her art for over 25 years (the last 2 years intentionally as a business), experimenting with face painting and pyrography, set design, murals, furniture painting and jewelry design – while believing in “the appreciation of art inclusive for all people.”
Being a true multitasker, the artist’s days are filled with responsibilities, and even though she is a primary care giver to her disabled daughter Molly, Maggie finds the time to organize her creative work around family needs. The artist’s home-based studio buzzes with activities: there are batches of paper mache pulp being prepared, social media websites maintained, research for new projects done, and the online mentoring program updated – while commissioned works in various stages of completion miraculously meet their deadlines.
“I’m usually quite wiped out in the evenings,” confesses Maggie candidly, “but as soon as I start working on a piece, time stands still, a sense of peace fills me, I have no sense of physical needs like hunger or thirst, and I go to my happy place (the Zone or Flow).”
Currently, Maggie is working on a series of vellum luminaries capturing the beauty of Jim Thorpe, and a project titled Do Unto Others that pontificates the need for kindness in modern society, and a better stewardship of the Earth. She also recently completed two CD covers for the Jennifer K. Eckhart & Stained Glass Road, to be released in November.
Deeply touched by individuals with physical disabilities, Maggie hopes to one day assemble an art exhibition specifically designed for, and accessible to, communities with special needs.
Inspired by the Surrealist movement and her particular fondness for Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte’s art, Maggie’s Please Touch the Art dream-project will include three-dimensional representations of famous paintings made available to visually impaired audiences by touch. “This is driven by the fact that seeing-impaired people are only able to enjoy famous works of art by having someone describe them in detail” explains the artist.
Socially conscious, Maggie was honoured in 2000 with an invitation to be one of three judges for entries in the internationally prestigious Noche de Arte, the largest annual charity art show and sale in Peru, held at the United States Ambassador’s Residence in Lima. Hosted yearly since 1961, Noche de Arte brings many artists, art collectors and philanthropes together in a united effort to aid different charitable organizations that support women, children and senior citizens in Peru.
Maggie is a self-taught visual artist with a passion for non-traditional three-dimensional aesthetics. What attracts her most to other artists’ works (e.g., Romero Britto, Thomas Fedro, Ten Hundred, Greg Simkins, Duy Huynh and Vic Muniz) whether captured in bronze, fiberglass or paper mache, is their symbolic use of hidden meanings and elements of surreality with “a touch of whimsy,” spiced with a seductive use of bold colours and unique narration.
“I am fascinated by all aspects of art” says the artist, who’s been studiously learning the arcana of the craft from art history documentaries, artists’ biographies, and YouTube videos on the various aspects of art techniques…“I will watch them endlessly and somehow, it all internalizes and comes out when I apply them in my art” admits Maggie.
Born in the Republic of Panama, in the former Canal Zone territory of the United States, where the artist lived until the age of 15, Maggie’s first creative avocations were lovingly fostered by her mother, a talented master-seamstress with a keen sense of fashion. She imprinted in her daughter’s heart a family mantra “if you can imagine something, you can make it.” Wise words indeed to sustain and to guide the artist even today.
Not surprisingly, Maggie’s early cultural influences have introduced her resourceful creativity to the perfectly malleable medium of paper mache and a fondness for sun soaked colours… today her favourite forms of expression.
Paper mache (in English) or papier mâché (in French) literally means a chewed, or pulped paper – and, as an economic and surprisingly tough (after drying) building material, it has been used in various forms since 200 BCE, originating in China. Obtained from a mixture of paper strips dissolved in boiling water to the consistency of thick cream and glued together with a starchy flour, paper mache made its way to Europe in the early 1700s. By 1893, paper mache sheets were expertly used by Tiffany & Co. in their production of lacquered and gilded luxury goods.
The traditional Mexican paper mache art as we know it today, was introduced during colonial times, and the technique quickly made its way north and south. There have been many uses of paper mache products over the years, from arts and crafts, theatre sets, and furniture designs, to paper mache canoes (made famous by Waters & Sons of Troy, New York), and even military aircraft fuel tanks used during World War II.
One of Maggie’s most enduring works of art to date is her paper mache sculpture “Inked” depicting a red-bodied octopus with nautical-themed, multi-coloured tattoos on its tentacles, hence the title. It is an expressive and cleverly resourceful work of art made in a medium that is a lot easier to describe than to perform. The octopus’s bulbous head supported by its rimmed, muscular forearms (painted in bright red, and dotted with occasional yellow spots and veins), seems to be glowing from the inside out, pulsing with a vital energy that is animating the intertwined tentacles in a dance-like embrace. The tattoos covering the octopus’s arms display an elaborate collection of turtles, sharks, sea creatures, an old galleon and a scuba diver, floating about backgrounds of sandy beaches, blue skies and deep blue oceans, in a perpetual motion of sea bound adventure.
The “Inked” sculpture is a dazzling work of hidden meanings wrapped in a fanciful playfulness. It was created specifically for the Carbon County Art League’s 38th Annual Art Show & Sale (held at the Lehigh Gap Nature Centre in Slatington, PA) and inspired by a dream.
“One night I was awakened at 2 am with a vision of an octopus fully done” explains Maggie matter-of-factly, “so I set about to make it as I saw it”. At the exhibition, the hip looking octopus with elaborate tattoos proved a very successful work of art, receiving two major awards that year: Second Place in the Mixed Media category, and the People’s Choice Award. This helped to convince Maggie that “her purpose on earth, besides being a wife and a mother, was to be an artist,” and that she could reveal through her art “the side of God most people don’t see or realize – His sense of humour.”
Creating anything in paper mache can be a messy undertaking that takes days to complete, but Maggie finds that aspect of her art most satisfying. In the making of “Inked” Maggie enjoyed the whole notion of succeeding at conquering the unknown and the unexpected. And yet, “the nerve wracking final painting of the sculpture could have potentially ruined the whole piece and destroyed months of labor, if a badly chosen colour or wrong finishing technique were used” informs the artist.
In spite of all that, Maggie has made the paper mache medium her vocation and handles it rather expertly. You may want to observe the online Paper Mache Presentation by Maggie Lukasevich as a Facebook Live event on September 9th, 2020, between 6 pm and 8 pm, by visiting the Carbon County Art League (CCAL) Facebook page.
It is advised that anyone who wants to follow along with the artist to create your own keepsake piece, should prepare a special paper mache pulp beforehand by visiting the CarbonCountyArt.com website for the recipe.
We wish Maggie many successes and expect undoubtedly fascinating and experimental works in future. You can contact the artist for a commissioned work here: MaggieLukasevich.Art@gmail.com
Yvonne Wright is the owner of STUDIO YNW at 100 West Broadway in Jim Thorpe. She can be reached at studio.ynw@gmail.com
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