The Artwork of Ludmila Dranchak

Ludmila Dranchak (1946-2018) was born in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, to Nicholas and Milada Dranchak, refugees from the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia and relocated there by the United Nations, in 1948. Later, the family emigrated to the United States when Ludmila was 11 years old. As a high school junior in 1967, the National Science Foundation’s Junior Science program brought young Ludmila to Laramie (WY). It was in 1970 that she changed her studies from science to Art and Spanish. In 1972 she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and also a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and received a Master in Fine Arts three years later.

Because employment in the field of science was, at that time, limited for women, she decided to pursue her passion of art and do something she really loved. Having read a book about the artist Picasso, Dranchak became interested in lithography. That curiosity led her into other disciplines of printmaking including etching, screen printing, linoleum cuts and monotypes of which she became proficient. Master Printmaker Jim Jereb from Laramie who knew her says, “Ludmila Dranchak was a friend, teacher, and mentor to many. Full of warmth and spirit her personality, so closely linked to that artistic identity, provided a connection to her poetic expression.”