Collection 0280 - Parasia and Wasyl Iwanec collection

Parasia Iwanec, née Krysa, was born on March 5, 1920, in the village of Piddubtsi (now Piddubne, Ukraine), Rawa Ruska District, Lviv Voivodeship, Peremyshl Diocese, Halychyna, Poland - passed away on December 19, 2020, in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. She completed nursing (1937) and business courses (1943) in Lviv. She married Wasyl Iwanec in 1946 and left for Canada from a Displaced Persons’ camp in 1948. While Dr. Iwanec worked as a physician in several cities, Mrs. Iwanec worked as a dental technician and seamstress but soon turned to art, to which she was devoted. In 1956 they settled in Edmonton.
From 1958 to 1962 Parasia studied painting privately from the well-known painter Yuliian (Julian) Butsmaniuk. From 1962 to 1968 she studied art at the University of Alberta, Department of Extension.

She was a member of the Edmonton Art Club and participated in all the Club’s exhibitions.
Parasia held over thirty individual and collective exhibits in many cities of Canada and other countries. The most significant exhibits were held at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich (München), the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, the Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation (KUMF) Gallery in Toronto, the Niagara Falls Art Gallery founded by Olha and Mykola Kolankiwsky, the St. Catharines Black Sea Hall, the Multicultural Heritage Centre in Stoney Plain, and at many organizations and cultural centres of Edmonton such as the Ukrainian Archives and Museum of Alberta, St. Josaphat Cathedral, St. Basil’s Cultural Centre, the Edmonton Community Hall, the Medical Women's Club etc. She also had exhibitions in New York, Philadelphia, the USA and Nicosia, Greece.

In 1968 Parasia Iwanec took part in the embellishment of St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral where she painted the main icons of the altar screen (iconostasis). The iconostasis was originally designed by Yuliian Butsmaniuk who, before his death, managed to paint the icon of the Mother of God and create a draft of the Jesus Christ icon. The icons of Christ, St. Josaphat and St. Nicolas, as well as four evangelists, Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, and archdeacons were painted by Parasia Iwanec.
In the 1960s and 1970s, she painted 160 Ukrainian Churches of Alberta. Her artworks were recognized with a number of awards. She is also the author of the catalogue Ukrainian Churches of Alberta (Українські церкви Альберти, 1991), which features 153 of her works.

Wasyl Iwanec (March 21, 1905, village Hubynok (now in Poland), Rawa Ruska District, Peremyshl Diocese, Halychyna, the Austrian Empire - March 21, 1979, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada) was born to a family of Hryhorii and Anna (nee Sawka) Iwanec. He was the seventh child in the family and had six sisters. He got medical education from the Jagiellonian University, Poland (1935) and worked as a doctor. In 1948 he immigrated to Canada and settled in Edmonton. From 1949 to 1952 he was a doctor at Eldorado Mining in Port Radium, “Great Bear Lake”, NWT. In 1953 - 1971 medical doctor at the Charles Camsell Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1977 he and his wife moved to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Member of the NTSh and the Canadian Medical Association in Edmonton.

(These biographies are written based on the materials of the Parasia and Wasyl Iwanec collection, UF2020.029)