Poland makes 22

Polish winged hussar by T Benda (Wikipedia)

My neighbor Frank Furgal in West Hollywood was a Polish American and an artist. We went to see an exhibit of Polish arts and crafts in Los Angeles ages ago because he had something on exhibit. He did a series of what he called Hussar's Wings. These were based on an earlier era than the Napoleonic Hussars we tend to imagine (see illustration above).

Frank drew on the image of the wings these soldiers wore, constructions of eagle feathers, leather, and metal harnessed on. The object, according to Frank, was to scare the shit out of your opponents as these winged warriors rode upon them.

Frank's art recycled mail pouches, those canvas bags that held letters. Diamond-shaped pieces of canvas were sewn and arranged to make abstract pairs of wings, their subtle shades of tan and gray giving texture. My father, who was a letter carrier, did not care for this "art" because it simply represented a dirty but necessary item of utility. In fact, reactions tended to fall into the categories of
(1) I don't get it
or
(2) cool! What is it?

Well, we loved the series and talked about buying one. We moved from West Hollywood to the Bay Area without doing so.

I could not guess my Christmas present that year. It came wrapped in blankets and strapped to the top of the car. Only when I removed packaging and saw a corner of plywood, canvas, and plexiglass did I realize it was, indeed, one of Frank's Hussar's Wings. Too cool and totally unexpected.

Tried to find a photo today but no luck. There was probably one among the photos that did not survive yesterdays hard disk reformat. In any case, as I did not have a house with walls large enough for the wings, they now are at my ex's home (it was a very amicable division of goods). I can still see them.

Well, that's my Polish story. Welcome, whoever you are who visited from Poland.
--the BB