Stained Glass Artistry Unveiled at Chinn Park Library

Provided by Prince William County Government:

Stained-glass artist Jeanie Dunivin had plans to add to her work that is hanging in Chinn Park Regional Library, but when she got sick that couldn’t happen. That’s when a couple of her friends stepped in to carry on the work Dunivin had been doing since the 1990s.

After Dunivin, 85, died in February 2015, Erin O’Brien Jones and Krystyn Haydash decided to pick up Dunivin’s torch and fulfill her vision of creating a large, ambitious, stained-glass piece to hang at the library.

Haydash, who knew Dunivin for many years, said it was a given that she and Jones would honor their friend’s wishes. “It’s extremely sad that she passed, but at the same time, she had a plan for us because everything happened in such a natural way.”

Jones, who studied with Dunivin, said it was easy to incorporate the themes of storybook, nursey rhyme and fantasy characters that Dunivin used in her works that hang at Central Community, Dale City Neighborhood, Potomac Community and Chinn Park Regional libraries.

“She knew my style. She knew Krystyn’s style. She liked my color choices. She liked Krystyn’s flair. We all shared styles,” Jones said of Dunivin.

“It wasn’t hard. It was just a matter of trying to blend the two,” Haydash said. “I wanted to honor her. I wanted her characters to come in.”

Jones said she and Haydash laughed and cried as they worked, off-and-on, for about nine months to finish the work that now hangs in a part of the children’s section of the library. “It’s very special to me to have worked on it in her name with Krystyn,” said Jones.

Deborah Wright, the assistant library director, said the piece Haydash and Jones created with “beautiful, vibrant colors” and “lots of details” complimented Dunivin’s work. “It blends three different artists’ perspectives into something that’s similar to what we have hanging … which is great. I think it’s important because it’s one more way to promote our love of literature, but also tying in now, the artistic aspect of it.”

Wright said she thinks Haydash and Jones succeeded in honoring Dunivin. “I think she’d be very pleased. I think she would be very happy to see that the work was being continued.”

Haydash said she just hopes children like the work. “I hope it touches the kids. That’s one of the reasons why I love it. I think that when they start looking at the characters, and then they go on the hunt to try and find the books, and then they start reading, I just want it to keep a cycle going.”

For more information about the libraries and library programs, visit www.pwcgov.org/library.