The image shown is one of 14 images made during Ash Wednesday prayer services and reconciliation services. Before each service, the image was drawn with palm ashes, and then used as a palette to sign the congregations. The final image is created with the congregation, in other words, and the whole ritual becomes a type of performance art. Each celebrant swiped the drawing he or she had been given, but each celebrant approached the action differently; therefore each image is unique to the variety of celebrants, congregations and settings. Although I made the original drawing each final image was a collaborative effort.
Greg Zoltowski was born in Brooklyn, where he lived the first part of his life, educated in Parochial Schools. He began drawing at the age of four, but did not begin formal training in art until high school. He attended the Pratt Institute, earning a B.F.A. in Advertising Design and Visual Communications.
After serving in the U.S.A.F. as a graphic illustrator, he began studies toward a profession as a Franciscan friar. During his years as a Franciscan, he earned two Masters degrees: an M.F.A. in painting from Catholic University, and an M.S. in Pastoral Counselling from Iona College.
Zoltowski has been teaching art at Siena College in Loudonville, New York for 27 years, and his now married and a permanent deacon with the Roman Catholic diocese of Albany.
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© Copyright 2008 Greg Zoltowski
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Greg Zoltowski is an artist in New York State, and a permanent deacon with the Roman Catholic diocese of Albany. ... read more »