Michael Andryc
'Sophisticated Primitive'
Grandma Anna Andryc (1876? - 1966)
Grandma Anna Andryc (1876? - 1966)
'We kids were all afraid of her. She didn't speak English; we didn't speak Polish, and she wielded her cane all over the place. Sometimes, she got both canes going . . .'
'We kids were all afraid of her. She didn't speak English; we didn't speak Polish, and she wielded her cane all over the place. Sometimes, she got both canes going . . .'
Left: Michael Andryc (circa 1958 at age 10) with Godmother Maggie Pasternak (left) and Grandma Anna Andryc, his paternal grandmother (far right), in the only photograph he has of her.
Right: Andryc's Grandmother - From the series Snapshots from the Netherworld. In this rendering, his grandmother enjoys a view of the Anthony Mill in Coventry, RI, outside the window. The Anthony Mill appears in many of his paintings, as four grandparents, both parents, and he all worked there. Today, it is remodeled and is a condominium complex.
" Through the miracle of art, I was able to turn this (deficit of cultural understanding) to my advantage. Using my imagination, I was able not only to fill in the blanks but also to take my grandmothers on a series of wild adventures in their adopted country."
" Through the miracle of art, I was able to turn this (deficit of cultural understanding) to my advantage. Using my imagination, I was able not only to fill in the blanks but also to take my grandmothers on a series of wild adventures in their adopted country."
"Riding with Brando (My Grandmother and The Wild One)"
"Riding with Brando (My Grandmother and The Wild One)"
Many artists assume alter-egos. For Marcel Duchamp, it was Rose Selavy (translated in English to “Eros, that is life”), and for German surrealist Max Ernst it was a bird named “Loplop.” For Michael Andryc, it’s his Polish grandmother, Anna. Michael, a self-proclaimed “sophisticated primitive post-modern artist” (yes, he acknowledges the inherent irony of such a title) admits that as a child he was “deathly afraid” of his Babka Anna Andryc, in part because she spoke a foreign language in a time when “no one wanted to talk about their origins before coming to America,” and because she was a woman more tenacious than the era allowed . . .
'She was such a strong woman—married three times—something which was unheard of in those days. One husband even mysteriously disappeared.' Now Michael enjoys hiding behind her in his paintings, traveling with her on outlandish adventures.
- Oli Robbins, Arts Editor, Bernalillo Signpost, 2016
- Oli Robbins, Arts Editor, Bernalillo Signpost, 2016
Ethnically
Yours,
Babka
Ethnically
Yours,
Babka
"The 90-Year Itch
(My Grandmother in Hollywood)
Close