Stanley Szwarc

Memory: shopping at Casablanca flea market twenty-some years ago with my husband, Bill Miller. We stopped to admire boxes made from stainless steel. There were quite a few on the table; each one attractively decorated with shaped steel pieces welded on to form a design. Bill , chatting with the man selling them, learned his name was Stanley Szwarc. Stanley explained how he came to create the boxes from his work as a welder. He simply had noticed the scraps

Memory: shopping at Casablanca flea market twenty-some years ago with my husband, Bill Miller. We stopped to admire boxes made from stainless steel. There were quite a few on the table; each one attractively decorated with shaped steel pieces welded on to form a design. Bill , chatting with the man selling them, learned his name was Stanley Szwarc. Stanley explained how he came to create the boxes from his work as a welder. He simply had noticed the scraps on the floor of his work area and started to see a way to use them. Well, I really liked one, so Bill bought it for $5.00.
The rest of the story of Stanley, his "outsider" art, and his beautiful personality has been described by many folks, as noted in Bill's story published in VANTAGE magazine several years ago.
We became good friends and often visited Stanley in Lyons. He made and let me have many exquisitely designed Christian crosses, which I treasure, as well, along with small medallions and watch fobs.
In recent years I have visited occasionally at the Ilinois Artisans Shop to "check on the Stanley boxes." IBill passed on six years ago. Now Stanley, two great men who came to grace our world.