On July 3, 2014, after a fifty-eight year absence from Poland, I landed at the Warsaw Okęcie Airport and was greeted by my friends and hosts, Paula and Mirosław Sawicki. I was encouraged to return to Poland by my friend, artist Wojciech Fangor, who, along with Stefan Szydlowski welcomed me to deliver a lecture/slide presentation on my drawings, “Fourteen Stations/Hey Yud Dalet” at the Stefan Szydlowski Gallery. Now a gray-haired man of sixty-nine, I returned to the place I left as a boy.

I was fortunate to see much of Warsaw and met many wonderful people. In addition to new and old Warsaw, Mirek and Paula took me to Treblinka. I walked on the place that was so familiar to me from my drawings. It was a heart-wrenching full circle between memories and experience. I was surprised to find raspberries growing on the pine-forested periphery of the memorial-boulder-filled site. I tasted some, and they were sweet.

As Paula drove us back to Warsaw, we passed a stork nest perched atop a telephone pole. Sticking their necks up from the bramble were two adult birds and two chicks. I took this as a hopeful omen.

This was the first time I met my friend, artist Krzysztof Bojarczuk, in person.
Krzysztof probed my reactions to the visit, and asked whether it might become a creative bridge between us. For weeks ideas gestated in my head, without expressing themselves through my fingers. Then, the birth of our grandson, Declan, breathed joy and renewal into our lives, allowing my hands to speak.

Memory, hate, chaos, pain, rebirth, joy, spilled out onto the sheets of paper. I let the drawings direct my hand to their ultimate realization. I returned to a place that was always within me. CLICK HERE FOR POLISH TRANSLATION

 


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Return-Powrot I - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic

Return-Powrot II - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic

Return-Powrot III - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic

Return-Powrot IV - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic

Return-Powrot - Three Suites after Images by Jerome Rothenberg and Arie Galles

Return-Powrot I

Return-Powrot II

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Return-Powrot V - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic

Return-Powrot VI - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic

Return-Powrot VII - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic

Return-Powrot VIII - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic and Oil Pastel

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Return-Powrot IX - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic and Oil Pastel  

Return-Powrot X - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic and Oil Pastel

Return-Powrot XI - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic and Oil Pastel

Return-Powrot XII - 11in x 14in - 28cm x 35.5cm - 2014 - Conté and Acrylic and Oil Pastel

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Arie Galles and Krzysztof Bojarchuk at Anda Rottenberg's, Warsaw, Poland - 7/2/2014

Anda Rottenberg, Krzysztof Bojarchuk, Paula Sawicka, Ewa Andrzejewska, and Miroslaw Sawicki at Anda Rottenberg's, Warsaw, Poland - 7/2/2014

Miroslaw Sawicki, Arie Galles and Anda Rottenberg at Anda Rottenberg's, Warsaw, Poland - 7/2/2014

Wojciech Fangor and Arie Galles at Fangor’s home in Bledow, Poland - 7/2/2014

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Arie Galles, Filip Sawicki and Miroslaw Sawicki at Fangor’s orchard in Bledow, Poland - 7/2/2014

Arie Galles, Wojciech Fangor, Magdalena Fangor, Agnieszka Meyro and Stefan Szydlowski at the Karczma, (Inn), “U Jakuba,” Grojec, Poland – 7/2/2014

Paula Sawicka, Wojciech Fangor, Magdalena Fangor and Agnieszka Meyro at the Karczma, (Inn), “U Jakuba,” Grojec, Poland – 7/2/2014

Paula Sawicka and Miroslaw Sawicki at their apartment, Warsaw, Poland, – 7/3/2014

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Arie Galles in front of the Palac Kultury i Nauki, (Palace of Culture and Science), Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Janusz Korczak Memorial, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Arie Galles and Wlodyslaw Labno before Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Jan Dobkowski and Arie Galles after Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

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Mariusz Kobzdej and Arie Galles after Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Paula Sawicka at Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Ewa Andrzejewska, Marian Turski, unidentified, in rear, Krystyna Piotrowska at Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Paula Sawicka and Marian Turski at Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

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Antoni Starowieyski, Wojciech Fangor, Magdalena Fangor, Arie Galles, in rear: Krystyna Piotrowska and Ewa Andrzejewska after Arie’s lecture at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Arie Galles, Monika Krygier and Stefan Szydlowski with poster for Arie’s lecture, on his Suite of Drawings, “Fourteen Stations/Hey Yud Dalet,” at the Szydlowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Wojciech Fangor, Elzbieta Kozlowska, Agnieszka Meyro, Tomasz Olszewski, Anna Olszewska, Miroslaw Sawicki, Krystyna Piotrowska and Arie Galles at the post-lecture celebration at the “Czerwony Wieprz,” (“Red Hog”), Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Stefan Szydlowski, Anna Olszewska and Tomasz Olszewski and Monika Krygier at the post-lecture celebration at the “Czerwony Wieprz,” (“Red Hog”), Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

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Jacek Kozlowski and Wojciech Fangor at the post-lecture celebration at the “Czerwony Wieprz,” (“Red Hog”), Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Jacek Kozlowski, Elzbieta Kozlowska, Ewa Szydlowska, Stefan Szydlowski, Anna Olszewska, Tomasz Olszewski, Monika Krygier, Miroslaw Sawicki, Krystyna Piotrowska and Paula Sawicka at the post-lecture celebration at the “Czerwony Wieprz,” (“Red Hog”), Warsaw, Poland - 7/3/2014

Miroslaw Sawicki, Jakub Winnicki, Paula Sawicka, Marian Turski (lecturing) Adriana Rewald, Paula Rewald and Roman Rewald, at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, Poland - 7/4/2014

Painted Ceiling of the reconstructed wooden Gwozdziec Synagogue at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, Poland - 7/4/2014

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Arie Galles at the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters Monument, Warsaw, Poland - 7/4/2014

Arie Galles in Old Town Square, Warsaw, Poland – 7/5/2014

Demarcation where once the Warsaw Ghetto wall stood, Warsaw, Poland - 7/5/2014

Krystyna Piotrowska, Krzysztof Stepinski, Paula Sawicka, Miroslaw Sawicki, Anna Niewiadomska, Grzegorz Gauden and Janina Stepinska at the Sawicki’s apartment, Warsaw, Poland – 7/5/2014

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Arie Galles and Krystyna Piotrowska at the Sawicki’s apartment, Warsaw, Poland - 7/5/2014

Monument field, Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014

“Never Again” entrance to the monument field, Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014

Burning Pit, the monument field, Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014

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Memorial Marker for the Jews of Gora Kalwaria, (Herman Nuss’, Sara Nuss-Galles’ father’s family members were murdered in this camp), Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014

Memorial Marker for the Jews of Piaseczno, (Prywa Lukowska-Nuss’, Sara Nuss-Galles’ mother’s family members were murdered in this camp), Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014

Paula Sawicka and Arie Galles, (Paula’s family members were murdered in this camp), Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland – 7/6/2014

Miroslaw Sawicki and Arie Galles at the Treblinka Extermination Camp, Treblinka, Poland - 7/6/2014

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