Artist Vasily Fedorouk

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Today the body of the great artist Vasily Fedorouk was cremated. I wish that I could have attended the funeral service for my friend and mentor in Chicago yesterday. I asked his wife Dilbarra if there was anything I could do for her, knowing that nothing will bring him back. She said, “Continue to tell the world about Vasily’s art. He was always so happy each time you wrote something for him or about him.”

Ukrainian born sculptor Vasily Fedorouk died in a horrible freak accident after saving his beloved dog Era during a family outing last Sunday in the Chicago area. In minutes, everything changed.

I share with you here three of his sculptures, the first two in stone, the latter in terra-cotta. He was a prolific artist with a great sense of design and a full understanding of quality.



This next image was taken during my last visit with Vasily in his suburban-Chicago home in September 2008 before I left for Florence, Italy. We are shown here with his beloved dog Era at his dining room table. We often kept in touch via the Skype and e-mail and I had an enlightening and wonderful conversation, as all were, with him on his birthday on August 16th. He had just earned 59 years. He had joked with me that while the number was not too high, all of his body parts were still working just fine. We both laughed. He had more energy than most people.



At the time of his death, some of Vasily’s sculptures were part of a 2-person exhibit at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago. The exhibit has been extended to at least September 6, 2009, so if you have the opportunity, please, please go see his wonderful artworks in person.


I know that Vasily changed my life in a significant way. I have grown as an artist because of him. I only hope that some part of his spirit can live on through me. And I will miss him like no other. And we all will never know the compositions never realized from his fertile imagination.

Canadian Marble

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I have been back in my Texas home studio since July. Although I love the mountains and found Austria to be a very beautiful country, I learned long ago that I get the “withdrawal shakes” if I am not creating art for more than a week. I was looking forward to getting a hammer and a chisel in my hands again and spent much of my holiday time figuring out which stone I wanted to work with first.

The winner was . . . a project I started in 2002. Inspired by President Bush’s reactions to the horrible events on September 11, 2001, I began a complicated composition in Canadian marble.

I will write more about my thoughts on this work in the coming posts, but here I wanted to include images of the stone as I received her from the quarry in western Canada. These images were taken 25 July 2002 from various angles in the stone. I will be carving a vertical composition.


My apologies for the “naked legs” shots. It is helpful at times to have relative size comparisons. And I like to climb things, so it was more fun to climb up on my wine barrel than to move the stone onto the ground to take a “bird’s eye view” image of the marble.

Stay tuned. Same bat channel . . .

Thinking of two new babies: my marble carving and . . . I would like to take this opportunity to welcome into the world today my newest nephew Evan!

Mirabell Gardens Salzburg

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Wow. My 300th blog entry! When I started this blog in September 2007, I was not sure if I would have enough things that I wanted to write about or share with others. Hmmm. I guess I really did learn how to speak (thanks Toastmasters International, and Mom, who made me go . . . )

This is my last post this year about Salzburg, Austria. Pictured here are the Mirabell Gardens. They are a good example of symmetrical landscaping. I was fortunate enough to walk through these gardens on two different days.


The Lady of the Roses was the first sculpture I saw in Mirabell and perhaps the only bronze. I liked her gesture and the brilliant red roses surrounding her. Her style, especially in the face, as well as her long torso gave her a more modern look. Unfortunately, I did not get to spend enough time in the gardens to learn more about the art or the artists.


I probably should not say this, but hmmmm… I was never good at tap dancing and I am still trying to figure out how to discern quality in art. Ok, so here goes: most of the public statuary that I saw in Salzburg area was not exceptional. As a sculptor, I am fully aware of how complicated creating 3-dimensional art is, and almost hate to pick apart someone’s heartfelt efforts.

I do like these next two sculptures that I photographed – the male figure to the left of the vehicle and the woman surrounded by greenery who looks as though she was surprised in the woods. For me, however, the male figures behind the vehicle in the first image seem less than elegant in their gestures.




Critics love to point out how Michelangelo’s figures are out of proportion, yet somehow, his art works. My friend and mentor Vasily Fedorouk sometimes creates, absolutely on purpose, figures with unrealistically small and sometimes strangely shaped skulls. However, it works. But I saw a lot of sculptures in Austria whose proportions looked “wrong” not because of an artistic vision or choice, but as if from a lack of skill. Not all the time and not all sculptures, but I saw enough art to have thought that the sculpture, in general, was not from the best artists of the time.

However, to contradict myself a wee bit, regardless of the quality of each individual sculpture, the overall EFFECT was always lovely. And I must admit feeling sad that in America, we do not live with so much art in our public or perhaps even private lives.

In this aerial shot I took from a gallery window, you may see a sculptural composition of multiple figures shown in the middle of this next image. She was instantly recognizable to me, having lived in Florence, Italy, off and on over the last three years. Again, I do not have any information on the Salzburg stone sculpture, but I doubt that it is the predecessor to Giambologna’s “Il Ratto della Sabines” (The Abduction of the Sabine Women”) in Florence, Italy’s famous Loggia dei Lanzi.


I think if you click on the image of the two sculptures sidebyside, you may see a slightly larger image. Besides the small heads in Salzburg, Giambologna’s sculpture features the more elegant composition and line. For example, see how the top figure’s legs are positioned differently in Salzburg than the Italian version. Which do you think has more flow?

Ok, I am done now.




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Shapes of Salzburg

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Enjoy these shapes and textures from Salzburg, Austria. The stone texture is a small section of road in front of one of the horse fountains in the town. I took these photos in July.

Salzburg Austria

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I will soon be wrapping up my writings about Salzburg, but since I am not a landscape artist, I just want to share some of these images in one way or another.

There are so many things to do in this area and I confess I did not cross much off of the list. However, I did enjoy some really good chocolate from several of the many confectioneries.





In closing, remember that salz means ‘salt’ and I took this image of a store that sold all kinds of salt products, including these salts for the bath. And no, just because this graffiti shown in the last image says “Texas,” I am not responsible. Sylvia asked me to explain the other line sprayed onto this wall. She liked this idea: “Neither of us can go to heaven unless the other gets in . . .”

Happy Birthday, my friend Vasily Fedorouk!

Church in Salzburg

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Not much time today for writing, but if you can stand to see ONE more church, here goes . . .
This one is near the cemetery and mountain homes I have been writing about recently in Salzburg, Austria. This church is quite ornate. As I walked past the outer courtyard, I saw this skull with bat wings. What a way to enter a sacred place that is suppose to uplift one’s spirits!


On the other side of the entrance was a round stone hung on a wall (shown here). If anyone has any idea of what this is for, please enlighten me. I doubt it is a bed warmer!


The other two image show you how decorated this church is. I believe this is considered Baroque (or maybe Gothic – eheh), but I am not that familiar with the art history labels. Yeah, yeah, I know that I should be, but I rather like thinking of shapes and composition more than categorizing things.

Is that a justification for bad artist behaviour?

Mountain Escape Salzburg

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

As my friend and hostess Sylvia and I cruised around Salzburg, we ended up in a large cluster of buildings, churches and the like, with the tombstones that were covered with the colorful live plants. I was beginning to wonder if all of Austria treated their dead in this way, never forgetting. I think the church was St. Peter’s. I know I am a terrible tour guide because I was content to look and not think of labels (names, locations, etc.). It was overcast that day, raining a bit. Sylvia was not happy with the large amount of unusual rain they had there during my visit, but I rather enjoyed it and felt like laughing a lot when we got caught in it.


Along the cliffside in this cemetery, one could view some mausoleums, presumably used by the wealthier families in Salzburg. And then above those one can make out windows embedded in the cliffs. Sylvia told me that these spaces were used to protect people during the war. I did not think there looked like there was much space in which to hide many people, but then I did not go up inside.



I remember that in the Carrara area of Italy, I was told similar stories about the mountains hiding locals from foreign attack. In fact, Lardo di Colonnata is a specialty dish of this Tuscan region, served even today. It is a “food” that is basically pig fat with pepper. It was all that people had to eat when they retreated up into the mountains to escape capture during wars. And it kept them alive. Perhaps that is why they cherish this dish so, but I have never had the desire to eat it.