Andrew Wiernicki
Sculptor Andrew Wiernicki passed away last week. You may not recognize the name, but many people will be familiar with his work. I only knew Andrew for a short time. We sat next to each other at the first Boston Comic Con I ever attended.
He was a charming and soft spoken man, and I truly enjoyed the experience. While we were hanging out that day, he sculpted me a little Robo head, which I have cherished ever since. The poor thing has picked up quite a few mystery stains from sitting too near my inks, coffee, and pro-white, but I like to think of it as well-loved, rather than abused. I like to pick it up every so often and get great pleasure from running my thumbs over the smooth dry clay of Robo’s face.
Such a tactile little bit of art. Like a Greek worry stone.
Andrew had been working on an Atomic Robo statue that we hoped Red5 would purchase and mass produce. He was never able to complete it.
It’s always sad when someone dies, whether you know them well or not. Certainly it’s just part of the cycle, and as natural as birth, but it’s still always sad. Sadder still, is Andrew’s unfinished work. Left standing, waiting for the final touches, or just rough clay still waiting to be shaped.
Goodbye Andrew.
IV
The End of Day
[H]e is playing like a child
And penance is the play,
Fantastical and wild
Because the end of day
Shows [him] that some one soon
Will come from the house, and say
Though play is but half done
“Come in and leave the play.’
-William Butler Yeats, “Upon a Dying Lady a Poem”
.
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Sorry about last week’s lack of blog. Life in Roboville’s been a tad on the overwhelming side, and combined with the holiday it left me no time to write. Which is just as well, since my poor, overloaded brains couldn’t have thought of anything worth writing.
Things aren’t any better this week, but to leave the blog hanging for yet another week felt like a failure of some sort. So here I am. At 5am, thanks to weird dreams.
Yay for being up. (Blorg)
I hope everyone had a good Thanks Giving. We partook in what is the 9th or 10th year of a lovely tradition, where my friends and I all make excuses to our families so that we don’t have to drive home, and can instead hang out with our friends. It started way back in college, and I’m pretty sure I was the kid closest to home -about 187miles away. The next guy was an eleven hour car ride from home, and the next guy’s parents lived in St. Croix. It only got worse after that. So going home seemed less like a good time, and more like an giant pain in the ass.
In college it was sort of sneaky -we all made up fictional invites to friend’s homes, all so we could sit in our apartment and never take our jammie pants and robes off. It’s less sinister these day, with some of the old parents actually coming to us now, and our kids toddling about, doing cute kid stuff. And then my crazy family pile in the car on the day after Thanksgiving, and drive the 6hrs up from NYC, spend a single day with us, and then drive 6hrs home again.
It must have been all the mind-numbing hours I spent in little tiny airplanes back in the day, but I won’t sit in any sort of metal box for more than two hours, unless I know for a fact that I wont have to repeat the experience for at least two days. three or four days being an even more acceptable buffer.
In Robo news, Volume 3 is moving at a snail’s pace. It’s a great story and I’m really enjoying it, but the artwork is a little dense (in terms of how much shit I need to draw), yet not very exciting, since issue #1 is very dialog driven. I’m starting page 11 today and I’m just at a point where I feel I can start getting creative with the “camera” angles. So that will be good.
There is lots of other stuff, (big stuff), happening with Robo outside of the comic, but I’m not ready to talk about that yet, beyond saying that it is very stressful and ruining my already sporadic rate of production. But everyone involved is very cool and I am quite excited to see what will happen.
It’s time to wake the Widget up for school. I’ll see you guys in the comments section.
RANDOM SPLENDOR
45 Vintage “Space Age” Illustrations.
I would like to take the opportunity to say that I like paintball. Paintball is fun. But these two dorks take it from “fun”, right into “I don’t get our mf my mom’s basement very often.
Sorry to hear your so dragged man. Thanks Giving was alright this year, I loved spending time with my family, its really a highlight of the year.. I had to work that night, so when all was said and done, I was up for about 29 hours and slept all Friday.
Oh, I picked up a set of French curves for like… $2.50 cents. It was a fluke, but still, im not complaining. Thats just random.
Hope you don’t stress yourself into pain man.
Sorry to hear about the sculptor… this year has been terrible for losing those that a lot look up to. Michael Turner, George Carlin, Heath Ledger, and of course, Andrew Wiernicki. I hadn’t heard of him before, but his stuff looks like it was awesome.
It is always hard to lose someone… a lot of people I know have lost a lot of relatives and stuff this year.
Anyway man, I hope you don’t work yourself into the ground, it just ain’t healthy.
Just keep doin what you love, and lovin what you do.
Heck of a thing coming from someone younger eh?
Scott,
Thanks for the kind words and recognition of Andrew Wiernicvki. Your note captured the essence of my brother.
Chris Wiernicki
That’s really sad about Mr. Wiernicki. I contacted him about the Robo statue and he was very pleasant in his emails. And such a talent as well.
Andrew will be missed. The world is a little less shiny. Don’t work so hard life is too short.
Damn it! Damn it, Damn it!!! I’m tired of hearing about the loss of life of people I’ve know and known. This year and last year has been a sad one with many souls who were artisans- passing on suddenly.
I emailed Andrew a few times back in 2007 I was interested in having him do a sculpture of my 2 characters. He said at the time that he was having issues with his hands- I understood and wished him well. I later contacted him a few months after in hopes of him, my brother-in-law Jeff (who sculpts) and myself meeting up and just hanging out since he lived a few miles from where we do. We never got the chance to do that and it’s sad. Andrews work is amazing and a testament of a true artistic spirit, in heart and hands. My prayers goes out to the Wiernicki family in this time of sadness.
peace
You know, I talk with you in person and via email on a regular basis. Yet I still enjoy your Blog. It must just be your awesome. All Scott Wegener, all the time.
Sorry for the loss of such a talented fellow. I’m sure a lot of great ideas were to come.
I hear ya about holiday nutsiness. When I’m not inking or drawing, i’m working for a grocery store, and for Best Buy. Needless to say, last week was hell and a half. Thankfully I had no pages to work on, or there would have been pain inflicted upon the general public.
We will once again be sharing shelf space on Free Comic Book Day this year my friend. Ape is having us do another Femme Noir story. Any chance to ink Joe Staton is true fun.
Have fun with vol 3!
with all those denser panels, are you changing up pen sizes alot too?
I think there was a notable change in the inking style from Vol1 to Vol2, will Vol3 take another direction?
Chris -you and your family have my condolences. I wish i could make it to the Cape for the wake.
Tetsubo -there’s just never enough of me to go around.
Matt -no, I’d say that Vol3 is just a natural evolution from what I was doing in Vol2. Vol.2 was a HUGE departure from Vol.1. For one thing, I actually resented backgrounds when I started Robo. I was so new to sequential storytelling that all I wanted to do was draw the characters and roll on. Also, because I didn’t know anything, I was just copying what other guys were doing -Mignola, Immonen, Otley, so I had very little comprehension of how you achieved a certain effect, or why you did A, B, & C.
By way of the insane deadline on Punisher, I stopped referencing other artists and just penciled and inked my ass off.
I was frankly shocked to learn that I could work without a crutch.