Painting commemorates Sept. 11: SIENA ARTIST INSPIRED BY CALENDAR

That was the task that faced Deacon Gregory Zoltowski, from Our Lady of Grace parish in Ballston Lake. The result will be on display during the annual Fall Concert of the Siena College Chamber Orchestra. The deacon is a professor of Creative Arts at the Loudonville college.

The oil on canvas, titled, "The Month After," is a tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.

"Pope John Paul II, in his letter to artists, reminds us that God calls the artist to visualize what is invisible and to give form to the formless," Deacon Zoltowski said. "I wanted to visualize what was given to me as inspiration."

What was given to him was a daily preoccupation with the events of Sept. 11 during the weeks that followed.

"At Siena, we decided to make a 'memorial wall' in the student center," he said. "We wanted a place where students and faculty could express their feelings of grief, anger and fear surrounding those events."

The deacon spearheaded that process, turning a wall where students hung ads and local campus news into a place where they could post e-mails from family members, pictures of victims, prayers, or "anything that they wanted to help them sort out their feelings or respond to what had happened."

Because establishing the wall took significant time each day, Deacon Zoltowski said that it seemed as if thoughts of the tragedy were with him on a daily basis.

Finally, one day while speaking with other faculty members about how they felt and what they were doing regarding the aftermath of the tragedy, one of his peers asked him, "Have you done anything yet?"

"No, I need time to process what has happened," he replied.

Empty month

"I walked into my studio at home and there, hanging on the wall, was my monthly calendar," he recalled. "I saw that there was nothing written on any of the days for October. The calendar was completely blank. The only word I could think of was 'dead.'"

He then thought of how busy people are and how many rely heavily on their monthly calendars. He thought of those that had been killed.

Deacon Zoltowski formulated his idea. He wanted to create a painting that would provide a powerful symbol of what had happened on Sept. 11. The empty calendar became his inspiration.

Painting pain

"The painting signifies a life cut unexpectedly short," he said. "The piece creates potential energy for the month of October 2001; that energy is now gone. It represents what might normally be a full calendar for most but now is devoid of activities, such as going to a child's soccer game, attending scheduled meetings or dinner engagements, time spent with family and loved ones. Now there is nothing but a blank calendar."

In creating his work, Deacon Zoltowski diverged from his normal style, choosing instead the styles of Andy Warhol and Ray Lichtenstein, and using a pop art approach.

"I wanted a result that was alarming to people, a challenge to look at and experience," he said.

(The artwork will be displayed during the concert, which will feature the world premiere of Lucius Wethersby's "Suite in D-minor," which is dedicated to the victims of the attacks on Sept. 11. The program will also include Dvorak's "Slavonic Dance No. 3 Op. 46," Mozart's "Violin Concerto in A-major" and Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony." The free concert will be performed at Foy Hall on the Siena Campus on Nov. 28 at 7 p.m.)

(11-22-01) [[In-content Ad]]