Artist:
Chapin Art Trail
A Community Art Project
Cherished
Olga Yukhno
Installed August 2025
Artist's Statement
Public art has always held a very special place in my studio practice, because I deeply believe that art should live in the same spaces where people live their daily lives. Not only in museums or galleries, but in the familiar places we pass through every day: parks where families gather, libraries where neighbors meet, shopping centers, banks, sidewalks, and community spaces that weave our lives together.
This piece, in particular, is meaningful to me because it belongs to a place where people from all walks of life come together. A thrift shop is such a beautiful symbol of community: a place where the stories of objects and the lives of people intertwine, where generosity and resourcefulness meet. Creating art for this environment allowed me to celebrate that sense of connection, and to reflect back some of the care and kindness I myself received here.
I believe beauty in our daily surroundings changes the way we experience the world. It reminds us to pause, notice, and feel a sense of belonging. Public art has the power to turn ordinary moments into meaningful ones, and it makes our shared spaces richer, warmer, and more alive. For me, this sculpture is not just about form or material, but about honoring the people and stories that make up this community.
About the Artwork
This sculpture was created as both a tribute and a celebration of community. The work is composed of two concrete forms which, when seen from a distance, come together to create the silhouette of a heart. The surface of these structures has been carefully covered in mosaic, giving new life to materials that once held meaning in other hands. Many of the objects incorporated into the design came directly from the St. Francis Thrift Shop, items that might not otherwise have found a new home. Through this transformation, something once cherished, then set aside, is able to begin again as part of a shared work of art.
The choice of a heart as the central form is both literal and symbolic. It speaks to the warmth, compassion, and generosity I experienced when I first came to the United States and began volunteering at the thrift shop. For over four years, I was welcomed into a circle of volunteers who supported, encouraged, and cared for me as I learned a new culture and built a new life. Many of those friendships remain close to me, even now, fifteen years later. This piece is a way of honoring that sense of belonging and gratitude, an opportunity to give something back to the people and place that gave me so much.
More than just a sculpture, the work reflects the enduring cycle of community: people giving, receiving, and sharing, with each story leaving an imprint. As part of Chapin’s art trail, it offers both residents and visitors a moment of reflection, a symbol of connection, and a reminder that beauty can be found in the most ordinary things when seen through the lens of care.
This project was created with financial assistance from the South Carolina Arts Commission.
About the Artist
Olga Yukhno is an artist originally from Pyatigorsk, Russia. It was in Russia her passion for art began. Inspired by the culture of her home country, she started by working with batiques, stained glass and enameling. She studied under world renowned enamellist, Nikolai Vdovkin for several years to hone her skills, before moving to the United States in 2008.
In the US, she no longer had access to the tools needed to continue with her enameling, and quickly started expanding into any and every new medium she could get access to. What she fell in love with was ceramic sculpting. It allowed her to experiment, and fuse together old-world artistry with her skills and abilities across a wide variety of art forms to create totally new and unique mixed media pieces.
Over the years, Olga has traveled to over 40 countries across Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and the Americas, and visited museums ranging from the world famous Louvre in France, to the smallest unnamed art displays in towns and villages few outsiders have ever seen. It is in these travels she gets the most inspiration, drawing on the uniqueness and culture of every new place she visits, she finds ways to incorporate those cultural nuances into each new piece she makes. The colors, shapes, and ideas of everything from tribal masks to modern street art can be seen woven into her work. She loves juxtaposition in her art, old and new, lustrous and weathered, and it’s in these contrasts she finds beauty.
As a member of the International Federation of Artists, Olga has taken part in many shows and exhibitions in both Russia and the United States. In 2006, she won the International Design Contest for Traditional National Costumes in Moscow. She has been featured in multiple solo exhibitions, including at the Bascom Art Center, and several galleries in North and South Carolina. She has completed courses and taught at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina, and has studied under many acclaimed sculptors in the South East.
Currently her work is a mixture of three dimensional ceramic and mixed media wall pieces, figurative sculpture, and larger scale installation works. The process used to create many of her signature looks is achieved by hand pressing each individual impression into the clay using small custom made metal tools. She hand makes all of these tools herself out of repurposed architectural metal scraps. She also loves to incorporate found objects, as well as utilize techniques from other art forms she’s studied and practiced, such as weaving, encaustic and metal working. The result of this process, different incorporated elements and techniques are what create her unique and visually interesting personal style. Her degree in psychology shapes the ideas and concepts behind many of her pieces, with the intention that observing her work encourages the viewer to think more about what they’re seeing, and the emotions it evokes.
Scavenger Hunt Clue:
A Partnership Project by the Crooked Creek Art League and the Town of Chapin
This organization is funded in part by the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support in this grant comes from the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of The Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina.
This project was supported by a Connected Communities grant from Central Carolina Community Foundation.
