User:Syrenab/sandbox

GEORGE IVERS (JERZY IWASZKIEWICZ)

George Ivers (1922-2001) was an extraordinarily gifted and prolific Polish artist resident in New Jersey, U.S.A. He created in a wide variety of media - oil, watercolor, sculpture (metal, wire, papier-mache, porcelain and paper), porcelain miniatures and graphics. Unfortunately his career was cut short by by Parkinson's disease.

Early Years

He was born as Jerzy (Yurek) Iwaszkiewicz 1922-07-05 in Zielęcin, south-west of Poznan, in western Poland. His father, Jan Witold Iwaszkiewicz (1891-1957) was the principal of a small elementary school in Bogdanowo, western Poland; his mother, Zofia née Leżanski (1889-1964), taught the younger children. Yurek demonstrated a talent for drawing at an early age and he was encouraged by a professional artist, a friend of the family. In 1939 he graduated from high school in the close-by town of Oborniki. Looking for adventure, he enrolled in the Merchant Marine Academy in Gdynia and was selected to take part in a training trip to South America on the new ocean liner Chrobry.