Photo Courtesy of Abby Skorenkyi

Bethany education and studio art major Abby Skorenkyi.

Family journey depicted through works of art

By Lance Schwartz (’86) – Chief Communication Officer, Bethany Magazine Spring/Summer 2023

When Bethany junior Abby (Nelson) Skorenkyi learned of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, her perspective was intimately and personally tied to the war. That’s because her fiancé, and now husband, Kostia Skorenkyi was anxiously watching the news reports that showed the missiles and helicopters assaulting the very streets he walked as a child growing up in the Kyiv metropolitan area.

Abby is studying both education and studio art at Bethany. She met Kostia in New Ulm, Minnesota, where he is studying in a program at Martin Luther College preparing him for future training to be a Lutheran pastor. Kostia could not believe what he was seeing, and the shock and horror surrounding the invasion was immense. They both wished they could do something for Kostia’s family who were literally on the run to escape the war. In reality, all they could do was pray.

While the Skorenkyi family’s situation and resulting travel out of Ukraine were agonizing and frightening, they did eventually find their way back together. The family was fortunate to apply as war refugees in the United States, where Kostia’s parents are now living. Kostia’s sister studies in Germany.

Photo by Ben Stelter

Abby Skorenkyi presented her paintings and the story behind them during her art show.

Throughout the ongoing ordeal, Abby began to focus her feelings and creative energy on a series of large paintings that depict the various paths her husband’s family took to escape the war. The paintings include her father-in-law driving (presumably) a military vehicle, her mother-in-law depicted as a caregiver amidst the horror, Kostia in prayer, her sister in law dancing (she studies dance in Germany), the family dog, and a depiction of her husband’s grandmother and twin sister who are still in Ukraine.

Abby presented these paintings as part of the requirements for her senior project for the studio art major. They were presented during her junior year because she will be student teaching as required by the education major during her senior year. The show, entitled “But Not All Is Lost” was exhibited in April 2023 in the Ylvisaker Fine Art Center.

Seeing Abby present these personal works of art was moving. She’s not one to approach her art timidly, she’s very much an outgoing, happy, and wholly dedicated artist.

Her professor, Jason Jaspersen said, “In Abby, I see a determined, generous person, someone who has a strong will and uses that strong will to push at the boundaries of how much she can give, rather than how much she can take.”

Abby’s giving nature allows her to propel herself fully into her painting. She says she loves doing the work, it’s as if her world is consumed by the process of painting at times.

“A lot of people that know me tell me that I’m a very happy person. When I see something really beautiful, I just get very excited, and I say ‘I want to do something about that.’ In the same way, art is what I do about it, and art gives me an escape from everything I do at school, the tests, so sometimes instead of studying for a science test, I spend time painting!”

“In Abby, I see a determined, generous person, someone who has a strong will and uses that strong will to push at the boundaries of how much she can give, rather than how much she can take.”
– Jason Jaspersen – Associate Professor, Studio Art