Polish Sculptor in America

Thank you Frank - You have a keen eye. I have wanted for some time to share my grandfather's gifts and work, since I shared my grandmother's many months ago. Finally had time to do it and of course one of the joys of creating a hub is revisiting all the family history and pictures. :) I like your description..."simple, but complex." Edmund did a lot of his smaller pieces out of his own pocket (which is why he worked full -time for 30 years as a draftsman at Lockheed) , but for larger pieces there would usually be a formal commission with maybe 30% of the price paid up front to cover materials. I don't remember anyone in the family ever talking about a govt grant. Edmund was fiercely independent, argumentative and followed no one's rules but his own. I can't imagine him winning a grant, where you really do have to play ball with the people who hand out the money. :(

Thank you Bill. He was an eccentric and at times difficult man, but incredibly hard-working and gifted. I feel like that in today's world a lot of people think all they need is a talent or gift and they aren't wiliing to put in the time and effort it takes to build a career. Kind of sad. It has been raining here for five days - not typical for GA. I will blame my modd and thoughts on that. Hope all is well with you and yours. Theresa

Thank you shining. My father's side of the family, the Polish side were incrdibly artisitic and creative. A painter/poet married a sculptor. :) My mother's family was more focused on education, great readers. Both my mother and her mother were teachers. Of course so am I, now that I think about it. :)

I appreciate your kind words about the statue...it just seems like the right thing to do. It will mean more to her as a Catholic than it would to me as an Interdenominational Protestant. I willl take lots more pictures before it goes to her home. :) Blessings!

Good Morning Nellieanna. It was a tremendous learning experience, but am glad to be back. Crazy bust at school of course trying to make up the lost week, but I hope to write about James Young and Holocaust Memorials and Monuments before too long. I put up the hub on sculpture because it was one that I had 80% finished several months ago and somehow never got back to, so finishing it went quickly. :)

Life is such a mix of joy and sadness. One of my best friends went to Washington with me. We shared the hotel suite and while I was at USHMM studying everyday she was wandering the city doing art and culture. Then we spent our evenings together. We were having a very nice time together, then early Wed morning her dad called.

Her 88 year old mother had fallen down the stairs in her house and broken an awful lot of bones and was in the hospital in a coma. Later the doctors said she had had a severe heart attack and her heart was terribly damaged. Marcia caught the Amtrak train to Savannah that afternoon and her mother did wake up enough for her to know that Marcia was there. But she did not recover and passed away on Sunday. Today is the funeral and it has been a sad week.

Don't know why I shared all this except that you are a sympathetic listener and such a caring person. If Marcia and her family come to mind today, I am sure they would appreciate, and I would appreciate, your prayers. Thank you. Theresa

Thank you teaches. I did have very talented grandparents. In the next two generation their DNA and gifts manifested more as singing and playing musical instruments. Although, now that I think about it ,as a young man when he was courting the ladies, Edmund played the violin. Guess, onc he caught Wanda, he moved on to other endeavors...and there was that interruption we refer to as WW II. Hope all is well with you.

Good Afternoon Alan. It is indeed a pleasure, joy, and blessing. It is strange that I have ended up with so many remnants. My father was in the Air Force for 25 years so we were away from Georgia and the grandparents far more than we were here. Luckily, both my mother and Bobcia (my Polish grandmother) were great letter writers, so we never lost touch. I re-settled in Georgia in my early twenties, married and started having children. We at last lived in the same city. :)

However, I was busy raising three little boys and Edmund and Wanda were not typical grandparents at all. They loved us dearly, but they loved and valued their work, their art above everything. They were very interesting and compelling people, but not your typical warm and fuzzy grandparents. :) I spent the most time with them near the very end of their lives. My father as their eldest child became the guardian and caretaker of their life's work -- of the sculpture, paintings and poems...and in time as his health failed, as the oldest child I became the guardian and caretaker.

For a long time I simply had boxes and boxes of family belongings and no time to explore them. Supporting three children on my own and trying to attain tenure at Reinhardt so I would have some security seemed to consume all my time and energy. It is in the last seven years or so that I have taken time to write for myself -- to get to know my grandparents gain through their art and her poetry.

The thread you spoke of has led me to a quite wonderful and fulfilling family tapestry. And I think wrapping myself in that cloth is what opened the closed door for my own poetry. Truthfully, and not because I didn't try or want to, but I wrote six poems in thirty-five years, although like many young people I wrote prolifically between 17 and 22.

To begin writing again, to edit Wanda's poetry (hopefully for a book), to give image and word to Edmund's life's work had been immeasurably gratifying. Something very old, but always there within me I think is slowly but surely being completed as I complete preserving their work and sharing it with family and friends. Thank you for appreciating them and what the thread and tapestry mean to me.

I guess I shall go wash my face now, because I have been crying as I wrote this. But as I occasionally try to explain to friends, their is good crying and bad crying. The tears of good crying are healing, bittersweet at times. but they confirm in me the threads that connect me with my family who are gone and leave me ever more determined to continue spinning threads, words, art, and music for my children and grandchildren. I have gone on too long, but I do thank you for being the provocation of my afternoon tears. ~~Theresa

Hi Mary - I am incredibly fortunate to have had and still have so many creative and gifted artists in my life. Being surrounded by their artwork has been a great blessing in my life. Edmund was indeed a great professional. His goal was always perfection., which made for a demanding and at times cranky man, but an incredible artist. :) Thanks for stopping by. Theresa

Good Morning, Pavlo (guess its not morning where you are) - I am very proud of them and their work. It has been a privilege and a blessing to be surrounded by such creative people. I am doing my best to preserve and record their work and life for my children and grandchildren. Hope all is well with you and yours. Blessings. Theresa

Hello John - Good to hear from you. So glad you appreciated this Hub. I am often in awe of the incredible creative sides of my Polish grandparents and so when I tackle a hub about either of them, I try to do my very best. Thank you for such generous and encouraging comments. I hope all is well. Theresa

Hi Valleypoet - Its funny, he was a fairly impatient person when it came to people, but with his art and creative work he had infinite patience. He was incredibly talented. I hope to do one or two more hubs about his work. Thanks for reading and commenting. :)

Hi Alastar - It does indeed! :) I didn't inherit any of the obvious artistic talents -- painting, sculpting, composing. But I am quite content with my forte, my niche, which is words. Surprisingly, I never thought of my writing as going beyond academia. Then a good friend talked me into joining HP, and the rest is History, Art History and Family History. :) Take good care. Theresa