I am so sorry that I have been quiet the past few months- my father had knee replacement surgery and between him and the kids, life has gotten busy busy busy.
I finally have a chance to breathe (and find my living room floor!) so I’m slowly going through old slides. Today’s quick blog post has me finding old slides from St. John Kanty Church in Buffalo, NY. They were taken by my later mother and the banners were also made by her.
St. John Kanty is also the parish my great grandfather Antoni ended up after he emigrated from that shit-hole part of Germany that was really Poland. I actually need to get over there so I can do some more genealogy research. (Genealogy has become another rabbit hole I’ve gotten sucked into)
Don’t forget that if you can help with a donation to replace the recently damaged Mary statue you can find more information at the St. John Kanty website.
St. John Kanty Church, Buffalo NY circa 1986St. John Kanty Church, Buffalo NY circa 1986St. John Kanty Church, Buffalo NY circa 1986St. John Kanty Church, Buffalo NY circa 1986St. John Kanty Church, Buffalo NY circa 1986St. John Kanty Church, Buffalo NY circa 1986St. John Kanty Church, Buffalo NY circa 1986St. John Kanty Church, Buffalo NY circa 1986St. John Kanty Church, Buffalo NY circa 1986
Artpark had a long history prior to becoming the first state park devoted to the arts. The First Nations people originally lived in this area and a burial mound dating over 2000 years old is located on the grounds of Artpark. Explorers Father Louis Hennepin, O.F.M. and René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, landed on the site in 1678. The first cabin built by white settlers was completed in 1720. By 1764 there was a British fort and a cable run railway that was used to ferry supplies up the escarpment. The 1800s saw the building of a large estate (destroyed by fire in 1965), a suspension bridge linking Lewiston & Queenston was built, and a sandstone quarry operated on the land. By the middle of the 20th century the land was largely used as a dump for both Chemical companies and the state.
The state took over the land and what is now known as Artpark (official name is Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park) was officially opened in 1974.
(back of postcard) ARTPARK, Lewiston NY. An exciting two-hundred acre visual and performing arts center, located six miles from Niagara Falls and operated under the jurisdiction of the New York State Office of Parks and Recreation.
From the Kickstarter campaign created by Artpark and Company:
In the summer of 1979 Artist Gene Davis (whose estate is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum) installed an Artwork titled, Niagara ’79. It came to be known as The Painted Parking Lot and it was incredible. Gene Davis spent weeks hand rolling sixty, 2-foot wide by 364-foot long lines in 9 different colors. This artwork was widely covered by the media and everyone in the community came out to experience it. At over 43,000 square feet, The Guinness Book of World Record’s hailed it as the largest painting in the world at the time.
Now that same parking lot is covered in black top with standard white parking lines. With permission from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Artpark is launching a campaign to recreate Gene Davis’s Niagara ’79 in that same parking lot using his exact design. Artpark has been working with Sherwin and Williams and will use the same industrial paints found on the runways at airports, in specially formulated colors, to make this project come to fruition. Armed with 18 inch paint rollers and miles of masking tape Artpark Adventure Staff and a group of volunteer professional painters will spend the month of May 2017 hand rolling lines just as Gene Davis did. JOIN US!
Drawn by Buffalo based artist Julie Lewizky (back of postcard) ARTPARK, Lewiston NY. An exciting two-hundred acre visual and performing arts center, located six miles from Niagara Falls and operated under the jurisdiction of the New York State Office of Parks and Recreation.
(back of postcard) ARTPARK, Lewiston NY. An exciting two-hundred acre visual and performing arts center, located six miles from Niagara Falls and operated under the jurisdiction of the New York State Office of Parks and Recreation.
The big wooden building (the Art-El) was demolished after nearly 40 years of use. It was both a fun and scary structure for children and I spent many days running amok on it.
