A Painting Style All Her Own - Wanda Maria Ast
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Wanda Maria Ast - Polish-American Poet and Artist
Wanda Maria Kowalska Ast was my paternal grandmother, my Bopcia. She, my grandfather, and their four children left Europe and immigrated to America in 1951. They had survived the Nazis, but they weren't sure they would survive the Communist domination of Poland. So they left their homeland in the Old World and traversed the ocean, disembarking in the New World.
Within a few years of their arrival, having mastered her fourth language - English, she began writing poetry. By the early 1960s she was taking art classes at the local community college and began painting. This is a collection of her oil paintings. In the two photographs above you see Wanda standing by one of her paintings at an exhibition, and then you see a close-up of that same painting.
Masculine and Feminine Portraits
An Iconoclast, Devout Catholic, Modern Artist
Wanda was an iconoclast; she liked to break patterns, challenge traditions and disappoint people's expectations. I should qualify that, she liked to break patterns and challenge traditions. It was later that she discovered that when she disappointed people's expectations, she often received intense reactions. She liked intense reactions, even negative ones; she liked being the center of attention.
Eccentric, emotional, intense, flamboyant, sensitive, and very much a bohemian. She was not a typical grandmother, and certainly not a typical American. But she was always interesting and she was always creative. She was also a devout and practicing Catholic her entire life. She never learned to drive, but attended Mass every Sunday, often walking fifteen blocks to mass. Many of her poems have spiritual and religious themes and some of her paintings and batiks do as well.
Her journals were a place for her to think out loud, to express frustration, to record moments of revelation and excitement, to communicate with God in prayer, to record the insights she found in the Bible and other religious works, to record the musings of her inner creative spirit. In her journals she jotted down notes and ideas for future poems and paintings, and even notes for future letters that she would write to family and friends. The journals alone make very good reading.
Wanda did both representational art and abstract art, and much of her work falls within the framework of the modernist period. You can find echoes of many of the artists from the modernists period reflected in her work. For a woman painting in the1970s and 1980s, who was in her fifties and sixties at the time, she made exuberant and unusual use of color. The color combinations and juxtapositions in her work are frequently the first thing that viewers comment upon.
Polynesia and the South Sea Islands
Edmund and Wanda Ast - Creative and Artistic Souls
Just as my grandmother was a painter and poet, my grandfather was a sculptor. He worked in marble, granite, various kinds of stone. He even pioneered a fiberglass process that enabled him to create busts and figures that were very light weight, but looked as if they had been cast in bronze. The final photograph in this series shows both my grandparents and two of the fiberglass sculptures created by Edmund. ( In a Hub called Marble and Stone, I have described the sculptural work that my grandfather completed in Poland before emigrating to America.)
The paintings below are classical nudes, clearly representational, a clear depiction of the human form as it really is, with customary and traditional draping. You will notice that the final two pictures, although they look different in tone and color, were painted using the same model. The difference in color and tone is partly due to the fact that I have the original of one of the paintings, and only a faded photograph of the other. The standing nude in blue hangs on the wall in my home. The sitting nude in blue, which is also in the final picture, was sold at an art exhibition in Atlanta, Georgia. All that remains is the faded photograph.
Classic Nudes - Wanda and Edmund Ast
Painting the Human Form
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Art, Painting, Batiks, Sculpture
- Marble and Stone - A Polish Sculptor
Edmund Ast, was born and raised in Poland, and obtained a university degree in art, specializing in sculpture and design. This was quite unusual for a young men in Poland in the 1920's. He was extremely talented and worked on many diverse designs in - Paintings by a Polish-American Artist
A selection of oil paintings completed in the 1960's and 1970's by a Polish-American artist who survived the Nazi, and then the Soviet, invasions of Poland during World War II, and who subsequently emigrated to America with her husband and four child - Batiks: Ancient Process ~ Modern Art
Batik which is patterned cloth created by using layers of wax and multiple dye baths are both extremely beautiful and time consuming to create. This essay contains general information about traditional batiks and specific information about a twentiet - Original Batiks - Wax Resist & Dye Process
A collection of abstract wax-resist Batiks created in the 1980's and 1990's by Wanda Ast, an American citizen of Polish descent, who immigrated to the United States after World War II.
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Comments - Representational Art, Human Form, Wanda AstLoading...
Audrey, you are so prescient. My two year academic project is to organize, collate and edit her poetry, prepare 40 to 50 poems for publication, select 10-15 paintings, write a 10-15 page biographical sketch and then submit the manuscript for publication.
I was making some progress, her poetry, photographs, and prints were scattered through six boxes of personal papers. I had separated out all the poems, when my father died, December 2010.
Closing up the house, handling my father's estate, and dealing with the probate court has taken a lot of my time and energy. AND we discovered two large trunks in my father's basement full of Wanda and Edmund's papers, letters, bills, poems, everything. Exciting of course, but also overwhelming.
So now I am slowly scanning in hundreds of photographs and several hundred poems that are on onion skin typing paper and will still have to be typed in (they only scan as images - they are so old the software doesn't recognize or convert the font.
I have one copy of some poems and four slightly different versions of many others. I find that I can only work on the poems during the summer when I only teach two days a week, but I can do a few creative things with her art during the regular school year.
So this is a terribly long, involved answer to your question. No, she never seemed to pair them together. And, yes, my goal is to pair them together and get a volume of her work published. Thank you for asking and I am very glad you liked her work. Theresa
Voted interesting!I always feel so educated from your
articles.
Thanks!
LadyLyell - What a lovely and thoughtful thing to say. You have my deepest appreciation. I love to share her art and I love to write about it; it is a privilege for me and when others appreciate it, why, that is like icing on the cake. Thanks for reading and for commenting. :)
Beautiful art and thank you for sharing.
Spirit Whisperer - It was my pleasure to share. So glad you appreciated the paintings. I am so fortunate to have quite a few of them hanging in my home.
I think you should make some of these available as prints. They are better than what I so often see for sale.
Maybe "Ast Art Prints" can be my retirement occupation. It has occurred to me before, but I have no idea how to go about it or set it up or who to get to produce the prints, but I am sure I could figure it out with more time. But I want to stay focused and getting the poetry published and finishing up a couple of other projects first...and then there is this incredibly demanding endeavor called HP that requires quite a few hours out of each week! :) It is something that would be neat to do in the future. I do agree, because I have seem some pretty "average" stuff for sale. Thanks for the comments. :)
I just love this hub! What wonderfully talented grandparents you had. I love art and have written some hubs about famous artists. Hope you'll check them out sometime. I've got to read your Marble and Stone hub. Blessing, Susieq42
HI Theresa--it sounds like a daunting task--but well worth the time I think!
Really wonderful article and beautiful art. I too, learned allot. I agree that you very often teach me something I haven't previously known. Very good. I voted UP, interesting, awesome and beautiful. Good job.
Drtruthman - What kind and thoughtful comments. I think teaching and learning that involves beauty is always the best, not always attainable, but when it is, wjay an added benefit. It is sheer joy and pleasure for me to write about my grandparents and their artisitic endeavors. :) Thank you for all the votes and the encouraging words. :)
Hi Susie - They were incredibly talented. Thank you for taking the time to say so. And I am so glad you liked the Hub. I will definitely try to look at your Hubs on art this weekend. :)
Great hub phdast7, you always surprise me with you articles, most of which I find unique and interesting.
Take care
John
Great hub with such amazing art! Thanks for this, and your comment on my hub about credit card rates!
HI John - Thank you. I am very happy to surprise you with unique and interesting Hubs. Now I feel pressure to make sure they are all unique...just kidding of course. :) My grandmother was such a unique and talented individual, that it is easy and a pleasure to write about her. I finally did a Hub on my grandfather, "Marble and Stone." I hope to do a couple more on the work he did here in America. Hope all things go well with you.
Glad that you enjoyed it. She was quite talented and I am fortunate to have 8-10 of her paintings in my home.
You are very welcome for the comments in your Hub. It was well written and easy to read.
PHdast this is simply Fine Arts at its best what a wonderful share Frank
Thank you for the generous comment, Frank. Our entire extended family has been pleased and blessed to be surrounded by so much fine art and sculpture. My Polish grandparents, Wanda and Edmund Ast were eccentric, unique, intense, and very gifted people. They left all of us a wonderful creative legacy.
Of all the paintings which are all lovely. I liked the standing nude 'water carrier' before I read the text. I am so pleased that you have it.
Your grandparents were very talented and thank god they got out of Poland and survived the war!
What an incredible life experience they must have had?
I like the picture of them in the gallery, they look so comfortable and happy together.
Voting up beautiful and interesting. SHARING
Hi Michael -
Thank you for taking time to read about my grandparents and look at some of their work. They were very talented and they made life more interesting. :)
The young girl withthe water jar is one of my favorite paintings too. I am very glad I have it, and so glad I could share it with you and everyone else.
Thank you for all the Kind Votes and for Sharing.
Theresa
So beautiful. You certainly come from an artistic family. It must have been fascinating growing up around all these creative people.
Thank you Millionaire Tips - It really was fascinating. Not only were they creative and talented, they were eccentric, bohemian, and had tempestuous personalities. :)They were certainly not "typical American" grandparents. Thanks for stopping by to read and to comment.
So artistic and I love their appeal.
Thank you twentyfive. I appreciate your comments and fan mail and the follow. I look forward to reading some of your Hubs.
phdast7, this hub is just fascinating and leaves me wanting to know more about your grandparents. I worry that you may not have time to hub at the same time as you are doing the academic project nut I hope you get a chance to share your findings as you go along. It would be my idea of heaven to find pieces of my grandparents past and bring them to light, if only for myself and my family. Mine were ordinary folk but your grandparents have obviously led fascinating, artistic, creative lives which is so interesting and I hope you find the time to share more of their stories. Brilliant hub which I have shared.
Thank you very much. Actually, I got so bogged down in trying to sort and scan and organize her poetry that I turned to her paintings. And that kind of evolved into several Hubs. My hope is to take the bits and pieces I have written for the Hubs and weave them into the longer introduction - biography for the book. I did get to share her paintings and one of her poems at an Academic Colloquium at my university recently. We had about 45 faculty and students there so I was very pleased (tiny, private university with a total enrollment around one thousand).
Its funny, I never thought about writing about them until about two years ago. I needed a break from strictly historical stuff and my grandmother had just died and I inherited a trunk of her papers. I had always had a few of her poems and some of her paintings of course, but the trunk was a veritable treasure trove of letters, poems, and photographs. It has been a huge job to go through it all, but an immensely satisfying one.
What about family letters or photo albums or recipes. Maybe you have have a treasure trove and don't know it. :)
These paintings look alive. I am amazed to see them...Thumbs up!!!
Thank you FullOfLove, It has meant so much to me and to our entire family that we have a lot of her art and her poetry as well. I appreciate you stopping by.
Very talented grandparents! Just imagine if your Bopcia had started her painting earlier in life---the sky was obviously the limit.
Thumbs way up!
Thank you. You are absolutely right! I never thought of it that way. Both of them could have gone so much further if their life had not been interrupted by the Nazis and then the Soviets and then starting over in America as immigrants. It is great to meet people on HP who appreciate art. Thanks for reading and for commenting. :)
This was an absolute delight to read and see some of the wonderful art created by your grandmother. She was certainly talented and from what you say, so was your grandfather. Thanks for sharing some of her incredible work with us. Voted up, interesting, beautiful and will share with my followers + tweet.
I'm a person that loves to see painting exhibits.
Thanks for stopping by CreateHubpages. I appreciate the visit. There are four Hubs about Wand Ast's artwork, two are about her oil paintings and two are about her batiks. Perhaps you would enjoy them as well. Thanks again.
Thank you Peggy - I deeply appreciate your generous comments. I am still working at fining my non-academic voice. :) And it seemed my grandparents and their art would help me make that transition. I also have about 200 poems that she wrote (she used to win poetry prizes in the 60's and 70's in Georgia) so editing them and trying to get them published is my major project in addition to teaching. Thank you for the votes and for Sharing. :)
Being a Monet fan, you had my full attention with the first photo! But after going back and forth several times looking at each painting, my favorite is the first in "Polynesia and the South Sea Islands" section.
What a fabulous legacy your Bopcia left you and your family! And what a brave soul you are for taking on the daunting task of pairing her poetry to her art in a book.
You say it's your academic project. Does this mean it all has to be done by you personally and therefore doesn't qualify for a grant to fund an assistant (or two)? I only ask because I've been trying to organize boxes and boxes of old family photos and letters for years, in a way my children and their children will treasure and want to pass along to their own descendants. Having a deadline would do me in for sure!
Voted up, awesome and beautiful! ;D
It is a fabulous legacy and I am so grateful & appreciative. The walls of my home and my office are covered with art and most of it is hers.
I do have to do the manuscript for the book myself and it is an overwhelming task. On the other hand, my School Dean will not expect me to write any research papers and present at any conference for two years, so that does help.
Actually, the deadline is helping me, otherwise I am afraid I would find too many excuses not to work on it. Its not a work on every week sort of thing - so many boxes and notebooks and envelopes of papers that spreading them all is a major effort.
I kind of "chunk" it. I get a lot done in the summer when I only teach two days a week and I do a "chunk" during fall break week, Christmas vacation, and spring break week.
Are you scanning the materials into your computer? That is the first thing I did, took a while, but if anything happens to me or I don't ever manage to finish the project, at least they can all have electronic copies.
So glad you think they are beautiful. I do too. :) Her husband, my grandfather was a sculptor. You might like looking at the early work he did when they still lived in Poland. Thanks again for your encouraging comments.
I did scan them only into the computer at first, but a couple of computer crashes taught me to also transfer the images to DVDs immediately after scanning. Also, emailing the images to myself at my gmail account ensures if for some reason a DVD becomes unreadable, I still have the images in the email(s). That trick has saved me from despair on several occasions!
I did look at your grandfather's work the other night, but it was very late so I only voted the hub up and such, but didn't leave a comment. His work is beautiful, and how wonderful he found an equally talented artist for a life mate! ;D
What an interesting lady your Grandmother was, and so talented. She catches the human form in an incredibly skilful way. I like her paintings very much. I must read more about your grandfather's work too. Up, beautiful, interesting.
Jama - That is a great idea. My computer has never crashed, but there is always a first time. And it is so much better to be safe and plan ahead, than to be sorry after it is too late.
You are right, it is rather amazing that two such creative people found each other and made a life together. Hope you are having a great weekend. It is sunny and in the high 80"s here in Georgia. Everything is blooming and beautiful. :) Theresa
Thanks for visiting and commenting Keri. She was a fascinating woman, artist, and grandmother. I hope to do another Hub or two on each of them. Thanks for the votes. :)
phdast7, How fortunate you must feel to be part of such a talented genetic pool. At least we know now where all your talent comes from don't we? You must be very proud of your grandparents. My grandmother was bohemian as well. I loved that about her. After reading this I may do a hub about mine. I love the artwork. It is lovely. I voted up and beautiful. Fabulous hub.
Lisa
Hi Lisa - I do feel fortunate. Bohemian grandmothers/Bopcias are the best! So glad you had one too, :) And you should do a Hub about her. So glad you liked her art. She was very talented and we miss her a great deal, but it is wonderful to have her artwork all around us. :)
AudreyHowitt Level 7 Commenter 3 months ago
This is just lovely! Have you ever thought about pairing her poetry with her art? Did she do that?