Remembering Lenore Tetkowski

I first met Lenore (Lee) Tetkowski in 2006. I was assigned to write an article about Grand Island High School’s first graduating class, who had graduated from high school in 1966. That year, that group was having their 40 year high school reunion. I interviewed a few members of the class and they all suggested that I interview their teacher. I was fascinated by the idea of interviewing the teacher so I said, “Sure, why not?”

I was given contact information for retired art teacher Lenore Tetkowski, and I called her and made an appointment. When I arrived at her very charming home, I discovered myself face to face with an absolute ball of energy. She told me about how the town had no high school at the the time but that the population was growing and there was a need for a high school. She worked with a committee to advocate for the construction of a high school. And it happened. In 1963, the first students, all sophomores, walked into the new school, and they did everything. They chose the school colors, they chose a mascot, and they created a sense of identity that made the building a school. Lee became an art teacher in the school. She taught all sorts of art subjects, but her specialty was fabric arts.

When I interviewed Lee, I never imagined that she was going to become my mentor. At the time, she was someone to interview for a story. She was an unusually fascinating someone to interview for a story, but that’s who she was.

Lee showed me her house and she showed me her weavings that were hanging on the walls and she showed me her work in progress on her looms. She told me all about the high school and she told me about being part of the League of Women Voters and UNICEF. She told me about all of the time she spent in Italy with her husband, who was director of Buffalo State College’s Siena program. I was absolutely fascinated by this wonderful woman. After I wrote the article, I wondered if I would see her again.

I don’t remember how it was that Lee and I reconnected but, for sure, we built up a relationship that took us from the interviewer/interviewee relationship to the mentor/mentee relationship. We truly bonded, and Lee encouraged me as a human being and as an artist. She become a second mom to me. She was always there when I needed her and she got my help when she needed me. Even into her 90s, Lee was a working artist, and her weavings became more and more complex and fascinating. One of the most amazing projects that she did was called Mount Diversity. It was an interesting and creative interpretation of Mount Rushmore.

Here are some of Lee’s weavings. The love of weaving that she developed at a college student gave her a lifetime of joy. I can’t find a photograph of Mount Diversity to share with you, but this is a good sample of the wonders of Lee’s creative mind and hands.

This is what I wrote about the Mount Diversity project in 2022 for the Island Dispatch:

In 2019, she produced a work titled “Mount Diversity,” which was displayed in a Weavers Guild of Buffalo display in Fox Run, Orchard Park. It won the People’s Choice award, as well as an award for best wall hung fiber art and the award for best handwoven clothing and yardage. She said, “It (‘Mount Diversity’) really began with a challenge from the Weavers Guild of Buffalo. The challenge was to create a weaving that was inspired by a national park. That really got me thinking. How can I do something like that? Almost right away, this came to me, to do a parody of Mount Rushmore.”

Early in 2020, Tetkowski entered “Mount Diversity” into the “20/20 Vision: Women Artists in Western New York” exhibit, along with nearly 200 other women artists from Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Niagara counties, at the Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University. The show was scheduled to run from Feb. 20 to Aug. 16, 2020.

“And as soon as it opened there, COVID hit. I just made it before COVID,” Tetkowski said.

In 2021, she said she read about the application to enter the show at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center.

“I had always known about it, but I never felt that I had something good enough or important enough to enter it,” Tetkowski said. “It’s a juried exhibit. It’s very hard to get into, and it’s held every two years at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center. It makes me feel very proud and humble, because of some of the other work there that’s spectacular.”

In 2022, Tetkowski donated the wall hanging to the Burchfield-Penny Art Center in memory of Sylvia L. Rosen.

At about the time that Lee had her 100th birthday in May of 2023, the Weavers Guild of Buffalo honored her with a show called “Lenore and More.” It was a retrospective of her work, as well as a display of the works of other weavers in the guild. Although Lee had fallen a few months earlier and had broken her hip, she had recovered well enough to attend and truly enjoy the show. She was obviously very happy to speak to the assembled group about her artwork. It was a momentous occasion for her.

Lee Tetkowski passed away on July 4th, 2024, at the age of 101. I am so thankful that she was a part of my life. She gave me so much just by being herself. I have created my artistic identity in large part because of her influence and her example. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor.