By Yvonne Wright • The Current Contributing Writer
The indeterminable nature of life provides us, as travelers through time and space, with pathways to a destiny we can only vaguely comprehend. And yet, our physical forms, as well as mental capabilities, appear to follow the natural path of all nature’s creatures; we go through life stages with distinct demarkations.
First, we sprout out with a vigorous youthfulness, learning and absorbing the resources around us. Then, we blossom into adulthood, our most socially successful, physically attractive and intellectually stimulating time of life, to be harvested at a later date for greatest potentiality. Eventually, like a well ripened fruit, we retreat into older and much mellowed selves with the advantage of accumulated knowledge, learned associations between concepts, and mental techniques, that more often than not gives us a clear advantage over youth in many fields.
One of those fields is ART, perfectly suited for mature adults with high-achieving natures, who did not discover their prospective talents, nor had the time to pursue them until later in life. They are the so called ‘late bloomers’, who, like many artists in the 21st century, embrace the idea of life’s unlimited possibilities and successfully conquer the odds against learning ‘new tricks,’ if they are the necessary steps for bringing them closer to their desired outcome. In simple terms, one is never too old to start painting, sculpting or whatever artistic expression one chooses to become accomplished at – a notion which has been supported by many recent retirees, who have made such discoveries.
Perhaps one of the most successful art careers launched at an advanced age was lived by Anna Mary Robertson Moses, a.k.a. Grandma Moses (1860–1961), an American folk artist who began painting at the age of seventy eight, received two honorary doctoral degrees, and who, as her fame increased, sold paintings for as much as $10,000 US apiece (an impressive sum, especially in those times).
Younger, but equally lacking professional training, was Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), who posthumously became one of the most influential artists in Western art. Within a decade of his adult life as a painter, from the time he picked up a brush until his death at the age of 37, van Gogh compiled over 2000 works, including at least 860 oil paintings firmly attributed to him today (although there may be many more), and most famous of which date from the last two years of the artist’s life.
At 52, Morgan Freeman was an off-Broadway actor when a chance movie role in Glory (1989), made him an international star, while American screenwriter Millard Kaufman wrote his first novel “Bowl of Cherries” at age 90 in 2007.
The Summit Hill born and raised artist Wayne Yurchak, is one of those wonderful artist’s stories of ‘love-for-art found later in life’ coming out of Carbon County’s rural countryside that deserves to be told. “Ever since I was little, I enjoyed drawing,” Wayne introduces himself casually, “they were mostly motorcycles and car drawings,” but they were well observed by a boy without artistic pedigree, whose love for art started in elementary school.
In high school, mechanical drafting classes introduced Wayne to perspective, structures, and how to construct forms, always intuitively seeking creative outlets. After graduating from Lehigh County Community College with an Associate in Applied Sciences (A.A.S.) degree in mechanical technology, Wayne joined the Air Products and Chemicals company (an international corporation with headquarters in Trexlertown, PA), assuming a position of draftsman in charge of “updating any changes made on-site with utilities such as lighting and power, underground plumbing, underground gas lines, lab renovations, and so forth”, which he held for the next 30 years. “It was not exactly a dream job,” reflects Wayne thoughtfully, “but it paid well.”
There is that continuous fabric of life, where the points of one’s destiny are set against similar interlocking points of those around us – mapping one’s responsibilities and obligations through time. However, the unexpected elements of technological progress, for example, may have the power to open doors to new and exciting possibilities, unforeseen before.
“When the Internet came along,” Wayne recalls, “I started browsing art on eBay, and thought it looked like fun.” Inspired at the age of 50 by what he saw on the Internet, Wayne decided to buy himself a portable painting kit with a tabletop easel, six tubes of oil paint, a couple of brushes and several canvas boards – not fully realizing at first what he was getting himself into and where he was going with it.
For the next few years, Wayne began to paint with the devotion of the newly initiated. Guided by intuition, Wayne realized that being a painter and having finally the time to devote himself to art was exactly what he was missing and longed for in his life…. One day, the artist’s son presented him with a book, a manual of basic techniques and principles of landscape, while his thoughtful wife bought him a full-sized easel and a book on acrylics.
“I started following the lessons in the books, and learned about atmosphere in paintings, fog, rain, snow, and sunbeams” [..] “and worked my way on a canvas from the back to the front of the scene, recognizing distant objects as less detailed than foreground objects; using under paint first, and then gradually adding details” explains Wayne, “and I’ve been in love with painting ever since.”
An ad in the Times News advertising an upcoming art exhibition by the members of the Carbon County Art League piqued the artist’s interest. Wayne entered the show, sold two of his paintings right off the table where he had left them… and the rest is history.
In 2014, Wayne joined the Carbon County Art League, to eventually become its Treasurer (2017-2018). His paintings continued to sell, in time earning him an invitation to a respectable gallery showing at the Tamaqua Community Art Center, as well as to teach painting workshops there, which the artist accepted and has been continuing with for the past five years (several times a year). “Never would I have dreamed that I’d become a semi-successful artist this late in life” shares Wayne candidly.
“I am willing to sell all of my paintings, except for a very few,” says Wayne somewhat apologetically, “one of which is So Alone, because I’ve grown attached to her, and the feeling of loneliness she expresses, even though we can’t see her face.”
In the acrylic on canvas work So Alone by Wayne Yurchak, the restlessness and the emotional insecurity of the present day world is undeniably expressed here via a mysterious avatar of a woman-like figure (which may alternatively be interpreted as a young male), viewed from the back, and dressed in a long, Matrix-like black coat. With the identity unreadable and squarely placed at the center of the composition, we seem to be drawn to a person in distress, wind blown but holding firm to the edge of the lake; surrounded by partially snow covered long grass.
The landscape is cold, frostbitten and still, as if the life-giving presence of sun rays have been permanently veiled by the wintery sky. This work is loneliness personified, signified by a figure that appears helpless, lost in thought, but defiant. Her tightly drawn back shoulders betray unresolved, deep emotions, mixed with a need for retribution – symbolically narrated by Wayne with red blades of grass surrounding the figure, and reddish hues in the clouds, as if blood ran through them, in the otherwise cold-blue and black landscape.
So Alone communicates the artist’s compassion for those who suffer, the outcasts and the orphans of modern society. It’s simple realism, nostalgic atmosphere and haunting colors connect deeply with the viewer, leaving an emotional resonance that helps to understand why Wayne considers this work very special and is not willing to part with it.
Currently, the artist works are available for sale at the Trend & Source Marketplace in Jim Thorpe, run by Jennifer Christman at 101 Broadway. One can also contact Wayne through his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/wayne.yurchak, where many of his recent paintings can be viewed in a folder called “My Paintings.”
Yvonne Wright is the owner of STUDIO YNW at 100 West Broadway in Jim Thorpe. She can be reached at studio.ynw@gmail.
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