[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Under Wings Background ] [ Underwings Art Gallery ] [ About the Artist ] [ Classes ] [ Other Segan Art - Judaic ] [ Other Segan Art ] [ Links ] [ Shoah Dreams Art ]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  by Akiva K. Segan, December 2000; June 2002; winter 2004

Photos from the following publications  have been used as 
inspirational source material in creating Under the Wings of G-D art

Thanks to the Holocaust Resource Center, Clifton-Passaic, New Jersey, USA
for permission to show Israel Bernbaum’s artworks in educational slide classes

Thanks to Holocaust survivor Toby Knobel Fluek for use of her artwork in educational slide classes

A special thanks to the zoology department staff, faculty and graduate students at the 
University of Washington's Burke Museum, Seattle for generous assistance with the wings 
collections since 1991. Also: a special tribute in memory of Collections Assistant 
Carol Spaw. a most helpful ornithology staffer and a personal fan of the wings series. 
The Burke Museum website

A few words of thanks in memory of the late Portland Art Museum Prints Curator, 
School of the PAM Art Professor & printmaker Gordon Gilkey, who passed away October 28, 2000. 
Gordon and his wife Vivian, who preceded him in death, provided incredible support to printmakers 
worldwide over many years by buying prints they presented to the collection. The Gilkey's important
work in creating a monumental public access 
prints collection was recognized with the dedication in the mid-1990's of 
The Vivian & Gordon Gilkey Graphic Art Collection at the 
The Portland Art Museum website

Thanks to the staff of
Yad Vashem  - The Israel Holocaust Authority & Memorial, Jerusalem, 
YIVO Research Institute & Library, New York   
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
Seattle Public Library, Seattle, Washington

Thanks to "Bobito" Royce for fantastic assistance in 
creating this website & spouse Millie Royce for keeping me fed during 
many long days & evenings at their home office. 
Please visit their terrific website to help orphaned 
ORPHANED STREET CHILDREN IN NICARAGUA

For German translation of Under the Wings titles, thanks / danke:
 Professor Janet Holmgren, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma
 Professor Charles "Andy" Weeks, Illinois State University, Normal. 

For Polish translations, thanks / dziekuje: Nyegosh & Maria Dube, Warsaw, Poland. 
 

Thanks to the following folks for various things related to my  
teaching invites Jan - Feb 2004 in England & Wales:
~ Lake Washington Girls Middle School art & history teacher Julie Trout for the
Under the Wings class invite and school honorarium
~Sussex University, Centre for German Jewish Studies, especially to 
former Research Associate Dr. Deborah Schultz, and CG-JS Dept Chair Dr. Edward Timms
~ Rev. Barry Smith, Mrs. Pamela Smith, Monmouth Methodist Church, south Wales and your anti-Semitic Christian Friends of Israel - UK group:  I can only dream that one day you will give up your anti-Semitic and racist agenda to convert all the world's people to Christianity. With your active promotion of one theology and religious belief as the only way for everyone, you negate the wondrousness and joy that diversity gives us as human beings. 
~ Monmouth Comprehensive School history teacher Alex Coles, south Wales.
~ Dr. John Klier and Dr. Michael Berkowitz, UCL's Hebrew & Jewish Studies Dept.,
~ Dr. Helen Beer and the students in her 2004 Yiddish class, Dep't of Hebrew & Jewish Studies, University College London, for their keen interest
~Dr. Julia Weiner, Art Historian, and the students in her "Jewish Identity in Western Art," London Jewish Community Center, England, 2004
~ Yonna Cohen, of Brighton 

Thanks for the following re the April 2006 Illinois Wesleyan University teaching trip:
     At Illinois Wesleyan University: Professor Sonja Fritzche (German); Ames
Librarian & Professor Lynda Duke: Art Prof & Art dept. chair Miles Bair;
Michael, Ames Library Media Specialist; Professor Irv Epstein
(Education);  Professor Marina Balina (History); Prof Gordon Horwitz
(History): Prof William Munro (International Relations);
Foreign Lang dept chair Nancy Sultan;
Ames Library Acting Director Kristin Vogel;
Visiting Tech Services Librarian Jane Smith;
Hillel student president Alissa Smith and the Hillel students;
and all the IWU students whose interest & participation helped make this trip a terrific
teaching experience. 
     Thanks to Pastor Mark Hamner for your interest in my work & it's educational lessons for children & youth.
     Danke/ thanks to Illinois State Univ. German Prof. Andy C. Weeks, spouse Veronika and 'kinderling' Alexander & Hannah & visiting brother-in-law Stephan for
your hospitality; and grazie/thanks to Illinois State U. Italian Prof. Jonathan Druker for the lift to Champaign. 
    Thanks to old friends Michael Hirschler, Urbana, & Juli Custar, Rantoul for
wonderful hospitality and enlightening conversations. 
    Dziekuje bardzo  ~ many thanks to fine art photographer & graphic artist
Paul Romejko (of Kosciuszko Foundation summer '84 Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow fame)
for Chicago lodging during this teaching trip.
~
Thanks to these donors for assisting with the
 Israel workshop & teaching trip of spring 2005 
~
Thanks to these donors for funding support Dec 2004 - May 2005
~
Thanks to Marty & Naomi Glass for their interest, work and installation of wings art at Temple B'nai Torah, Bellevue, Wash., spring 2005 for Yom Ha'shoah
~

Thanks to the following individuals - and one church - whose
contributions helped with the UK teaching trip Jan - Feb 2004, 
With art purchases: 
~ Elizabeth Nucci, Seattle, Parakeet Drawing # 2 (OSA- Birds)
With funding contributions:
~ Dvorah Kost, Seattle
~ Temple B'nai Torah Cantor David Serkin-Poole  Discretionary Fund, Bellevue, Wash.
~ Dr. Pam Silverstein, Spokane, Wash.
~ Fran Conto, Baltimore, Md.
~ University Congregational Church, Seattle, Wash.
~ Whitney McCleary, Seattle ("double chai donor")
~ Joe King, Seattle ("double chai donor")
~ Linda Zumoff, Portland, Ore.
~ Deb Schadt, Kirkland, Wash.
~ Chaim Bezalel & Yonna Levy / Stanwood House Gallery
      & Arts Center, Stanwood, Wash.
~ Maura Callahan, Snoqualmie, Wash
~ Karen Franke, Mercer Island, Wash. ("chai donor")
~ Janet L. Ruud,  Tacoma, Wash.
~ Dan Flasar, St. Louis, Mo.
~ Pamela Morris, Portland, Ore.
~ Dr. Sharon Zell-Peltner, Seattle
~ Lee Yahnker, Goldsboro, North Carolina
~ Thanks to Bob, Rachel & Sophie Hossack for
 a smashing good time on the bumper cars and
on the roller coaster over the English Channel! 
______________________________________________
Acknowledgements for the Illinois exhibition teaching trip, April 2004: 
Western Illinois University, Macomb::
~ John Graham, Art Gallery director and the Art Gallery student assistants 
~ Debra K. Miller, Assistant to the Dean, College of Communication & Fine Arts,
~ History Professor Peter Cole & Art History Professor Lorraine Schwartz 
~ President Alvin Goldfarb & Mrs. Goldfarb for the Pesach seder invite
~ The HIllel student president, student members & the faculty advisor 
~ Communications graduate student Jenna and staffers
Rich Egger and Don Johnson at WIUM, campus NPR affiliate
~
llinois State University, Bloomington: 
~ German Professor Andy & spouse Veronika & kids
~ Italian Prof. Jonathan Druker
~ Latin Prof. Janice Siegal
~ Art Gallery director Barry Blinderman for the ISU Gallery published "UFO Art exhibit"
~ German & East European Studies Prof. Sonja Fritzche
~
Thanks to the following for assistance with contributions of funds
for framing previously unframed wings art for the 2004
Western Illinois University exhibit: 
~ Rabbi Beth Singer & Rabbi Jonathan Singer, 
Temple Beth Am Rabbinical Discretionary Fund,
     Seattle ("double chai donation")
~ Sunday school principal Kris Garrett, Seattle
~David Marcial, Bronx, New York 
________________________________________________________________________
Thanks to the following individuals & institutions for providing lodging during teaching trips:
~ Prof. Andy & Veronika Weeks (Bloomington, Ill. April '04)
~ Western Illinois University Administration (Macomb, Ill, April '04) 
~ Cardiff Univ. German instructor Marc Schweisseinger (Cardiff, Wales, Feb '04)
~ Monmouth Comprehensive School History teacher Alex Cole (Monmouth, Gwent, Wales, Feb '04)
~ Yonna Cohen (Brighton, Feb 2004)
~ Leah Thorn & Arike (London, Feb '04)
~ Aron, Wendy & Isiah Gutman (Ithaca, N.Y., '02) 
~ Ithaca College (April '02)  
~ Yoram Joshua (Hod Ha'sharon, 1999; 2002; 2005)
~ Ellen & Professor Jack Maddex (Eugene, Or, '99)
~ SIU Art Professor (retired) Larry Bernstein & (spouse) Jean (Carbondale, Ill., '96)
~ Stephens College Art Professor Robert Friedman (Columbia, Mo., 96, 97, 98)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Memoriam:
~ Ron Bills, library architect and co-worker, who deserves special praise in my memory book as the only person who not only commented on my foray into mixed media works (e.g. the desk, ca. 1985-86, and "Heidi's Zoo-Work," but who actually 
spoke favorably about them on viewing them at the Gracie's Restaurant exhibit of 1987. "You were clearly ahead of your time!" 
~ The Fahrenholz parents....raised in Lwow. Poland & settled in St. Andrews in the 
post-war years.... whose discussions during my visits to their home were truly something to experience. 
I'll never forget Mrs. Fahrenholz remarks that the worlds governments 
could spend untold billions on armaments and to send men to the moon but they wouldn't 
spend the more to cure diseases like the rhumathoid arthritis that crippled her and eventually took her life. 
Amid the clouds of smoke in a haze of visiting Polish emigre neighbours there was fighting & yelling, a theatre-in-the-real 
with no pretension that Jean Genet & Eugene Ionesco would have loved. . 
~ Gordon Gilkey, Sr., Portland Art Museum prints dept. curator & printmaker, a friend and 
supporter of printmakers worldwide and whose warm & down to earth ways were wonderful. 
~ Mark Greengold, my childhood pal in Queens
~ Marlene Jameson, librarian and library co-worker, a friend, music lover, art lover, cat lover, parent and daughter 
~ Kvetch / my moody, temperamental & sometimes wildly enthusiastic bald cockatiel. 
      Kvetch lived with me during the first seven years of the wings series & kicked the 
bucket in June '99, just six months before his planned 20th birthday bash.    
~ Jeanne Loughmuller, long time curator of Art at Rainier Bank, Seattle...another smoker....
whose support of my art in the early - mid 1980's was greatly appreciated...as was her 
friendship and always warm personality and good spirits (even while she was forced to wear high heels in the banking
corporate culture that she worked in, even after having had to endure several foot surgeries....)  
~ Harri Palmer, Univ. of Missouri Art Dept secretary, 1970's - 1996, died in a plane crash...
   It was enjoyable seeing her again when I visited campus in '96. 
~ Jacob Lawrence. 
~ Ti Powell, a Seattle friend (¡VIVA LA REPUBLICA ESPANA SIEMPRE!) who waged a good fight against AIDS
~ Seattle artist & printmaker Peter Ramsey. I met Peter at the Pratt Printmaking 
center when it was at Seward Park, fall '80. Peter said: "printmakers move
to Seattle and almost all give up printmaking!" I snorted and said "That'll never happen to me!"  
By 1986 I'd stopped printmaking altogether. After my return from Poland Peter visited me at my
house at the time and found out I was Jewish. He was incredulous: "You're Jewish?!" he repeated aloud
several times.  I'm still incredulous that anyone could know me for six years 
and not have a clue that I was a Yid. That year we met once a week downtown for an architectural walk and talk downtown. He loved city architecture. Once, while I was in England, I'd sent him a card with a commemorative English postage stamp depicting an amubulance, in honor of English ambulance drivers. He mailed it to me covered with arrows and markings, as he wanted to point out the spatial errors in the design. I inserted onto the mat of a small etching he sent me of one of his favorite opera composers. Another tobacco victim who loved the smokes & his coffee, Peter enriched the lives of many.
~ Giles Ross, a young Scottish friend from the St Andrews - Cupar - Fahrenholy region of Scotland with whom
some enjoyable times were spent in Poland & Scotland, along with his brother & Mat Fahrenholy. 
~ Gertrude (Trudi) and Alex (Alexander) Schwarz. Both refugees from Nazi Vienna, we met at the Magnolia library branch in Seattle in the early 1990's. Alex told hilarious stories about his gymnazium classmates Teddy Kollek and Simon Wiesenthal and once Trudi came to shabbot dinner at friends in the south end of the city. She told us the whole story of her escape from Vienna, her sad, lonely teen years in England as a domestic in the countryside and her eventual move to New York where she met Alex in the post-war years. They were wonderful people. We had fabulous political arguments. 
May their memories be blessed.  
~ Bill Sessions / a Seattle friend & the most enthusiastic supporter of my art whom I’ve ever
     met. Bill was so moved by my 1982 etching “John Brown of Harper’s Ferry” he wrote a
     ten-page article about it (that I never had the opportunity to read, alas.) The etching can be 
     seen in Other Segan Art - People. An addicted cigarette smoker who repeatedly failed at quitting, 
     Bill died of an aneurysm at age 38, several years before I began the ‘wings’ series….
~ Sam Sorgenstein, emigrated from Poland and lived in Carbondale, Illinois, where he 
enriched the lives of townies, faculty & students in the Jewish campus community over the years. 
May his memory be blessed. 
~ Carol Spaw...wings collection assistant at the Burke Museum whose interest in and support of the project was greatly appreciated...
~ Leo & Ruth Stahl. I met this little warm-hearted Jewish couple at my 1985 Equivalents 
Gallery exhibit in Pioneer Square which they'd read about in the Jewish Transcript. They bought "The Dream No 1" etching. Leo, who was active as a volunteer with the American Cancer Society, passed on that following summer while I was in Poland, although I didn't hear about that until the following winter after I returned home. Ruth lived for many years and remained active with seniors where she lived for many years with opera and music programing. Years earlier she'd been a singer with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. May their memories be blessed.   
~ Alvin Tamarkin, my high school classmate & friend, 1950-69. I'll never forget when we
took a homeless man who was on the on the vagrant end of life, to lunch in a Greenwich Village restaurant on Bleeker Street
and the proprietors had what was used to be called a knipshin fit. Our guest was a talker and the radio got louder and louder by the kitchen. It was our simple act of easy altruism, providing a meal to someone who needed a meal (among other things; but there was only so much we could offer in the way of assistance). 
~ Vera Townsend, a University of Missouri Art History professor, whose keen interest
in my art was truly appreciated...as was her friendship.....sadly, she was another tobacco victim...
~ Rabbi Earl Vinecour, Hillel rabbi, friend, and author of "Polish Jews - The Final Chapter," 
whose life ended way too soon in the late 1980's. However controversial some of his 
stated views were, his commitment to Judaism and Jewish people was never in dispute by anyone.   
~ John Weller, studio art and printmaking professor at the University of Missouri 
and my grad school advisor... who lost his life to tobacco around age 52 or  53, way too young. He offered me great
encouragement on my art, for which I was appreciative.
~ Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank, 1951-1998 / David went to see the 1998 “wings” exhibit at
      Seattle Central Community College Art Gallery and wrote a one-word response in the
      comments book: “Wonderful!”  Alas, we never made time to talk about the show
      and his thoughts on the artworks, the victims, the perpetrators & the silence of G-D. 
so: "Don't waste your life!" 
~ Jan Zabel, music teacher....A friend from the mid-80's, I hadn't seen him in many years....thus I was 
stunned to read about his death in the Seattle papers around 2002 after he'd be murdered in a robbery...
a great loss to everyone who knew him and whose lives were enriched by him...
~ family friends Eva & Ben Padnick, you are missed!
~ and these victims of the Nazis: Zlata Barshewsky, my paternal great-grandmother who could have been 
alive into the 1950's after I was born had she not been murderded by the German/Austrian Nazis
~  Zlata's son Liebel Barshewsky, his wife &  their two children, born in 1923 & the late 1920's
~ Rubinsztajn, mime of the Warsaw Ghetto / Ale Glajch! ~ ALL ARE EQUAL!