Artists Registry

Leokadia Makarska-Cermak

Brooklyn NY United States

http://www.makarska-cermak.com
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On September 11th 2001, just before the tragic events that would unfold that morning, I was in Lower Manhattan. As I was walking south and thinking about my projects, I suddenly felt an urgent need to pray for many people who were in pain. So, I started to pray… Then, I crossed one more street… and somebody showed me the collapsing North tower of the World Trade Center… As the clouds of dust began engulfing everything around me, I run away with other people.

I began to paint this canvas soon after 9/11 but I couldn’t finish it. The images of living nightmares I witnessed that day, and those echoed over and over in the media, weakened my motivation. I put the unfinished painting away, as I wouldn’t force myself to work on it under these circumstances. Though mine paled in comparison to so many others, it took me almost 10 years to overcome my trauma from that tragic day.

This past July, nearly 10 years later, I finally felt the energy necessary to finish my artwork. I applied golden leaves on the angel’s hair and wings to show their heavenly origin. Then, I covered their clothing and wings with dust imitating the dust from the burning towers because evil triumphed over good on that day. When I completed this painting, I named it Golden Angels over Lower Manhattan on 9/11.

I believe that that strong urge to pray for people in pain I felt on 9/11 was somehow connected to the innocent people on those hijacked planes and inside the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Their many stories told and those that we would never hear are why I decided to dedicate this painting to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. They inspired my prayers, my artwork, and continue to inspire me.

I dedicate this painting to the victims of the 9/11 attacks and their families.

-Leokadia

Leokadia Makarska-Cermak is the artistic name of Leokadia Cermakova. She is an architect and a European artist who has exhibited her paintings widely throughout Europe and the United States. When residing in the Czech Republic, she first worked as an architect, and then taught interior architecture. During that time, she was also a certified expert examiner of furniture and artistic restorations of interiors. While in the United States, Makarska-Cermak has been working since 1998 as the sole curator and in-house artist of the Grand Prospect Hall, a nineteenth century landmark in Brooklyn, where she has been providing artistic restoration of the Victorian interiors, including gilding, painting, and sculpturing. She creates her own original artwork and sets up art exhibits. Her experience as an artist, architect, and appraiser has given her a detailed and precise sense for portraits, everlasting symbols, and decorative art.

Makarska-Cermak’s list of honors includes presentations of portraits to such public figures as New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2009, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1998, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer in 2001, and Founder and Executive Director of the Congress of Italian-Americans Organization, Inc., Mary C. Sansone in 2007. Makarska-Cermak painted commissioned portraits of the former Czech President Vaclav Havel, Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul II and other notables. She received a full scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture to study abroad. Additionally, she received numerous Fine Art and Art Expo Interior Design awards. Moreover, Makarska-Cermak’s work has been featured on TV programs in Poland, namely TVP Wroclaw’s “Fakty” and “Weekend Z” and also in the New York, on Polish Polsat News WNYE, Studio3 Polish-American television and New York NDTV. She was invited to talk to Radio ZET in Wroclaw, Poland and also to Polish Radio Rytm in New York as a solo guest of program “Sztukomania”. Clips from some of these programs are posted on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/LeokadiaMC. Leokadia Makarska-Cermak is a member of the Portrait Society of America and the Congress of Italian-Americans Organizations, Inc. In addition, Leokadia is the Founder and Executive Director of the Central European Foundation Arts LC, and she established in 2012 two new Art Galleries LMC-Fine Arts in Europe.
Leokadia Makarska-Cermak (as Leokadia Cermakova) received her Bachelor of Arts with Cum Laude honors in Art Administration/Art History from the Weissman School of Arts & Sciences at the Bernard M. Baruch College of the City University of New York in the United States, her Master's Degree in Education from the Thomas G. Masaryk College of the Czech Technical University (ČVUT) in Prague, and her Master’s Degree in Architecture from Technical University in Zvolen in former Czechoslovakia. In addition, Makarska-Cermak pursued five years of independent studies in drawing, painting, and sculpturing in the Czech Republic, Italy and the United States. While in Italy, 1995-1996, she studied in Bologna under such distinguished Professors as Francesco Brunetti, Demetrio Casile, and Nino Noce.