oha 2003

Spiegelmann’ing my Luftsmensch Life, a self-portrait and more!

Art: 2003: A drawing section was redrawn, 2014. Three fragments of drawing areas of the 1984-85 artwork "Homage to Pawiak Prison, Warsaw, 1984" are in this artwork. Homage to Pawiak Prison was disassembled in 2010. [see Other Holocaust art, 1980’s] 
Media: Ink, colored pencil, gouache, ballpoint pen
Size: 35.5 inches H x 48.25 W [90.17 cm H x 122.55 W]

At left in the drawing: A portrayal of a paternal uncle of my late mom: His name was Liebl Barshewsky. He was a brother of my mom's father, Harry Graff, who was an early 20th century immigrant to the U.S. from Poland. 

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Liebl, his wife Hindl and their 2 children, born in the 1920’s, were murdered by the Nazi government during the Holocaust. They lived in Berlin. Liebl sold clothing out of their apartment; he grew up in a village outside of Bialystok, Poland. His wife Hindl was from Lithuania.   

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Luftmensch is German, it has several meanings including airman; airhead; and in an internet search, a person unconcerned with making a living, hah!  

A beautiful parakeet is at upper center.  

The three mice in the drawing may bring to mind the mice portrayed in graphic artist and author Art Spiegelman’s Maus I & Maus II books.
The cat is a Certified Hairball-Furball Ejector Screecher-Creature.
The passenger jet, lower left, was drawn while at a gate waiting for a flight at the Palm Beach airport, Florida.
The woman at left was drawn from a photo of someone I dated, early 2000's.
The upside-down, battery-operated chicken toy, seen at top between the parakeet & the cat at upper right, was also depicted in UTW 48: Italian Jewish resistance hero Eugenio Curiel, Castel Sant’angelo and my flying Chi, Obi Jew-Jew Kenobi [see Under Wings gallery]. The toy was given to me as a gift by a former girlfriend.
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Also see Other Holocaust Art - The Shoah Trilogy:
Zlata the Righteous of Bialystok and her son Liebl who lived in Berlin 

Zlata is also depicted in UTW 42: Shoah Dreams.