Our world once came from chaos. From the Big Bang. From the process of Creation, which consisted of the separation of Heaven and Earth, Solid and Water, Light and Darkness. He was both destructive and creative in nature. These opposing energies complemented each other, nourished and formed the basis of everything. Therefore, men, as a part of it, by their nature try to echo this, feeling the power of those processes rooted deep in the memory of the species. Therefore, they spend their whole life trying to conquer chaos, tame their inner desruptions, or at least understand and cincetrate them in the right direction.

Among the boundaries of chaos at one of the Kosiv former kitchen, the faces of saints appear on the tree as well as the crosses and icons , secular portraits and plots. Why kitchens? Because they were chosen by Taras Strynadiuk as the best place inside the house to arrange the workroom in. He has the other one, main workroom, in the garage, but it lacks that entourage. It does not provide such an opportunity to contemplate the inner kitchen and in this way to learn a lot about the person and his craft.

If you look at this cramped room from a distance, it resembles a colorful set of spots of Rorschach, a test of imagination. However, if you get closer, the eyes reach a broader picture. Then they begin to distinguish from the layers of things specific objects lying on the ground, scattered on the kitchen furniture, hanging on the wall: all these magazine clippings, books, plates from the time of Grandma Austria, scraps of paper, bottles, tools, pots and other utensils, threads, paints, scotch tape, clothespins, thermometer, angles. All this is chaotic, at first glance, but is intertwining, turning into a shapeless mass to express the figure of Taras in the far corner of the kitchen. He is sitting by the window in the light of lamps and animating sacred figures and subjects on the tree with a help of chisel.

This chaos of ideas and inspiration, preparation and rest, goes a little beyond the workroom makes a foray into the corridor in order to guerrilla there with an eclectic weave of Halloween masks and Christmas decorations of Santa Claus’ head, a luxurious carved chest and a sketch-like drawing. And even gets to the next room, where the Taras’s museum begins. There, at the entrance, you will be greeted by an exhibit in chain mail, jokingly dressed in a gas mask and surrounded by axes and a cartridge case to the MANPADS. And in the next room you can see a rare collection of crosses, collected by the artist. And there is already a perfect orderliness. Chaos is tamed.

There is a conflict or a contradiction in all this. Yet they are inherent in every person from the beginning, but are best manifested in those who try to conquer the chaos of creative energy. Therefore, all this only indicates that Taras Strynadyuk is a man of the border. A man of contrasts, who thus expresses his way to the audience.

Man is a sinful being. He is inherent in everything earthly, but it strives for the high, so it tries to unite Heaven and Earth, combining the sacrum and bolvanum. But to understand what is closer to him – you need to know both sides. Therefore, the artist must go beyond the usual boundaries to feel each side. To better understand the benefits of good. To feel evil and overcome it. To feel the balance. Therefore, it is not surprising that this Hutsul artist is known not only for his plastic works on wood, but also for the creation of wines. Including exotic ones.

He must discover the world in order to feel its flow more subtly. To draw lines with a lighter hand and more clearly with a chisel. To be able to separate the low from the high. Distinguish between good and evil. To see and reproduce a three-dimensional world.

Because in order to tame a beast, you need to become a little animal, start thinking like it thinks, feel like it feels. Therefore, as a wedge is knocked out with a wedge, so chaos is tamed by chaos. To extract from it the ordered space of Heaven.