Handed Down - Nevada Arts Council

1997–1998
Polish Wycinanki:
Frances Drwal and Barbara Lierly
With the simplest of materials and tools—
paper and scissors—Polish folk artists have
for generations been creating intricate and colorful
multi-layered paper cuts called wycinanki. According
to Frances Drwal, a wycinanki artist living
near Chicago, the tradition is in danger
of being lost in the old country, but a
few Polish-Americans are carrying it
on in their new homeland. Frances’
mother was born in Poland, and
Frances was raised, and still lives,
in a heavily Polish neighborhood
southwest of Chicago. She first
saw the colorful paper cuts while
studying Polish language and
history in Poland, and her first
reaction was, “How can anybody
do that, all those curlicues, it must
take a lot of learning. I found it was
surprisingly easy, it just takes time.”
Frances did take the time, and brought her
new-found skill back to Chicago with her. She began
offering Polish language classes through a community
education program, and when her students asked for
more information on Polish culture, she offered her
first class in wycinanki. That got her noticed, and she
has gone on to teach with an organization called Urban
Gateways in Chicago, offering classes to school children
and teachers, adults and senior citizens, for libraries,
community centers, museums and festivals. She has
also published a book of traditional wycinanki designs
from various regions of Poland.
Barbara Lierly also grew up
in Illinois, a second-generation
Pole, but now lives and teaches
high school art in Las Vegas.
She met Frances through her
mother—both women are
members of a Chicago Polish
organization—and approached
her about an apprenticeship.
Barbara’s mother
is from Poland, but Barbara
wasn’t raised with much in the
way of Polish traditions, other
than food and holiday celebra-
(above) Polish Wycinanki by Barbara Lierly
Barbara Lierly
tions, and she didn’t learn the language. She remembers
her parents having some paper cuts in the house,
but she had never tried the art herself until she started
working with Frances. Barbara went to Chicago in August
at the beginning of the apprenticeship
and Frances showed her the basics of
folding and cutting paper to create
designs so she could go home and
work on her own. By the time
Frances made a trip to Las
Vegas the following January,
Barbara says she “saw quite
a progression” in her work.
Barbara has also been teaching
her art students the techniques,
and invited Frances to
her classroom while she was in
town.
Most of the patterns are of
designs from nature such as animals,
birds, and flowers, and they often start
with a black background and then build up elements
out of different colored paper. Polish farm families
used them to decorate their houses, although more
recently they have been made for sale to outsiders. Barbara
says of the teacher, “The one thing that she really
emphasized was anyone can do this process. It does not
take any real special person, all it takes is a pair of scissors
and some paper and some dedication. You don’t
have to draw, you don’t have to paint, all you have to do
is cut.”
Frances Drwal working with
Barbara Lierly’s art students.
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