Grassland birds and willows from “Perkūnkalnis” decorated the premises of the Seimas

Herb Spell. The exhibition of the works of Nijolė Stakėnienė, a member of the “Perkūnkalnios” community, named as such, was opened in the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.

“For me, this is a huge event, honor and recognition,” Nijolė said without hiding her excitement at the opening of the exhibition.

Her unique decorations made of hay, reminiscent of blacksmithing, full of sacred white signs and other Lithuanian symbols, as well as delicate verbs impressed the members of the Seimas and other visitors to the exhibition, who were presented with two exhibitions of the people of Alytus region that day: N. Stakėnienė’s herbal decorations and the hunter’s, “Hunting differently” exhibition of various hunting-related exhibits “hunted” by collector Vytautas Kucevičius.

“A person of special talent is only able to create wonderful works from what nature gives, from natural materials, which you cannot help but admire,” said Juozas Baublys, a member of the Seimas, who presented the authors of the exhibitions with letters of thanks and Lithuanian Tricolors.

Nijolė Stakėnienė, an active member of the “Perkūnkalnis” community, is a self-taught creator who was born in the small village of Pavartėnai in the Alytus district and attended Pocelonii school. In her youth, the life path she chose had nothing to do with creativity: Nijolė acquired the specialty of high-speed computing machine programmer operator at the Vilnius Electromechanics Technical School. Returning to Alytus after studying and spending several years in Vilnius, Nijolė worked in administrative work in various Alytus companies and in Alytus city and district municipalities.

Her creative path began about fifteen years ago, when, not wanting to throw away a large number of grown plants, the woman decided to dry them and tie them with vines. She learned this craft by herself. She also learned on her own, even, one might say, developed her own authentic technique, and began to create unique decorations from hay.

“I have always been fascinated by blacksmithing. Two of our family friends, Valdas and Kęstas Valentinavičiai, are blacksmiths. Looking at their work, I thought how amazing it would be to create something like that. That’s how I started creating hay decorations”, says Nijolė.

In addition to hay, which forms the basis of the decorations, she uses many other outdoor plants for her creations: rabbit’s tears, cat’s-foot, buttercups, marigolds, corn ears, flax. The hay decorations depict the sacred symbols of the Baltic states, the tree of life, and the cross.

“Many birds are included in my works, because in our area, it has been believed for a long time that the spirits of our loved ones, who came to visit us during the holidays, temporarily stay in the bird. Before the holidays, many birds were always made, they were hung on the Christmas tree, the Easter tree, in straw gardens, and kept in the ghost corner, which was in every house,” says Nijolė.

She creates for her own pleasure and the joy of people. At folk artists’ and artisans’ fairs, Nijolė’s “birds” are grabbed with a rake, and delicate willows decorate the homes of many people every spring.

The opening of the exhibition in the Seimas is a celebration both for her and for the whole “Thunder Mountain” to the community, which has been picking up the diamonds of its region for almost ten years – talented people with a bright soul. A large group of them visited the Seimas on the opening day of N. Stakėnienė’s exhibition – because joy is fun to share! And there was really a lot of joy that day – Algirdas Kudarauskas not only played for fun at the opening of the exhibition, but together with Danuta Trunciene, he even created several verses of the song dedicated to Nijole and sang them with the approval of all the people of “Perkūnkalnis”.

We sincerely thank Seimas member Juozs Baublis and his assistant Virginija for their help in organizing the Nijolė exhibition and the tour of the Seimas, we say THANK YOU to the leaders of the Alytus District Municipality and the Daugai Vladas Miron Gymnasium for providing transport for the trip to the Seimas, and we thank the cool driver Rimus Batulevičius for a safe trip and patience .

Aldona Jankauskiene,

Chairperson of the “Perkūnkalni” community

Photos by Arvydas Dimša