With reporting by Chris La Pelusa
Fred Leznek collages began as a small hobby and bloomed into a journey. (Photos by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
You could say that Sun City resident Fred Leznek of Neighborhood 18 has a “thing” for history. But after viewing his intricate and perfectly-crafted collages that will be on display in Prairie Lodge for ten days, from April 18th to the 28th, you may also add that he has a thing about art history or art and history. Nothing will take you back to the Middle Ages, Ancient Egypt, Native America, or many other popular time periods quite like Leznek’s detailed, colorful, and thought-out collages that prove a picture is worth a thousand words. And, in this case, hundreds of years.
What started out as just a hobby and a good “stress reliever” for Leznek will now be on display for all to enjoy. “Being the vice president and moderator of the Sun City historians, I sat down one day and said to myself, ‘I’d like to do something artistically,’” said Leznek.
The first collage Leznek crafted was one entitled “Nation Divided,” which depicts the Union and Confederate sides during the Civil War. “I happened to borrow one of the old boards from Sun City [which Sun City throws out],” said Leznek. “I had a couple of old magazines and books, so I started tearing them up, cutting them out, and making a collage. So that was my first experiment.”
Leznek was so pleased with the work of art he created that he ventured on to a second, using material from books purchased at a used bookstore. For this piece, Leznek highlighted the Great Depression. And after that, there was no stopping him.
“I took certain themes, Realm of the Rising Sun, which is ancient Japan; ancient Egypt; Normal Rockwell’s America,” said Leznek.
The Middle Ages is Leznek’s latest piece and was finished about three weeks ago.
On average, it takes Leznek six to seven weeks of working hours to complete one board. “I do a little piece here, and I put it away. I bring it back out, and I do some more when I have time to do it,” said Leznek.
His tools are simple—he cuts the pictures out of books, uses rubber cement to mount them, and laminates them afterward. “This is all imagination on my part,” said Leznek. No computers or other aids are used in creating or visualizing his collages.
“I go from page to page in the book, and then when I see something that would fit, I cut that piece out and paste it over there. Then I go to another page and say, ‘That would look good over here.’ So it’s just a matter of perception and how to perceive how it’s all going to work out,” said Leznek.
But Leznek’s skillful arrangement and selection of the individual pictures is what makes his collages so impressive.
“You take various scenes and you overlap, but not too much, because you don’t want to cover up the picture underneath it. It’s just a matter of trying to visualize how this would look as an overall picture of Ancient Egypt,” explains Leznek.
Leznek’s earliest pieces were smaller than his current ones, which are larger than poster-size. Until now, Leznek has displayed items individually at the Sun City Historians’ monthly meetings.
Leznek said, “We have our Sun City Historians meeting once a month, and I pick out one of these to display on an easel for that meeting….”
But now, Leznek will be displaying all but two of his collages for the residents of Sun City to enjoy at the Prairie Lodge for ten days in April.
“It’s history,” said Leznek. “If anyone is interested in history, they’ll stand and admire it. Other people who are artistic in mind [will] want to look at it from the artistic viewpoint of it. So it really has two aspects: historical and artistic.”
Leznek isn’t certain what the future will hold: “I don’t know where it’s going to go, to be honest with you. I accumulated so many of them that I said to my wife, ‘Maybe other people who don’t belong to the Sun City Historians would like to see these….’
I’m also going to be bringing these over to the high school history department…to have them displayed for the kids,” said Leznek.
But there is one thing Leznek does know for certain, and that is the past and all of its captivating moments that keep us riveted to this very day, and no doubt he will continue to collect those moments of time into masterful works of art that speak of the past and to minds and hearts.
