In 1921 my great-grandparents experienced the first opportunity (to my knowledge) to have their pictures taken. The occasion was a momentous one for them. Of their seventeen children, their youngest, Stanley Marusarz, was that day performing his first Mass. To document the occasion, Great Grandmother and Grandfather put on their Sunday best and posed with Stanley before the cabin that was built many many years before this occasion. This was the cabin in which the Marusarz raised their large family. Today it is completely deteriorated. The last of the seventeen children recently died, but had lived all her life in her home town of Zakopane, Poland. The priest, unfortunately, was arrested, tortured, and killed by the Nazis, who suspected him of being a spy.

This was painted in oils on a Belgian linen panel. The painting is framed in wood that is carved to look much like the corner joints of the cabin.

This painting is not for sale, but is an example of how a very old, deteriorating photograph can serve as a model for an heirloom painting.