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BY BOB MOULESONG
Times Correspondent | Tuesday, December 19, 2006 | (No comments posted.)
WHITING | The way Al Odlivak sees it, it's his way of contributing to the preservation of history.
Odlivak's way is his paintings, more than 350 to date, that capture the uniqueness of "the Little City by the Lake."
"I want to paint memories for people," Odlivak said during a visit to his Whiting home. "I want to share the history of our town, all of its different nuances."
A walk down the hallway looks and feels like being in Thorton Wilder's "Our Town" or Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life." There are paintings of the Hoosier Theater in its heyday and Whihala Beach in the 1920s. And 119th street is captured in all of its charm during a high school parade in one painting and buried in the blizzard of 1967 in another.
The work takes one back to a simpler, more innocent time, when people left their doors unlocked and spent evenings rocking on the front porch.
"History isn't just dates," Odlivak said. "It's something you feel."
The story of how Odlivak began to paint is a local legend. His wife, Mary Ann, was redecorating the living room and could not find a suitable painting to hang above her new couch.
"I had found a suitcase filled with pencil drawings Al had done when he was younger," Mary Ann said. "I showed him the drawings and asked him to paint me a picture to hang above the couch. I even went to the store and bought the paints and the canvas to get him going." The dutiful husband complied, and the rest is truly history.
Today, Odlivak's paintings hang in the city library, city schools, people's homes and the Whiting-Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce. At least one painting has made it as far as Texas, according to his wife.
For the last few years, the chamber has created a calendar of Odlivak's paintings as a way of sharing the city's history. The 2007 version features a cover painting of Whihala Beach with a solitary figure strolling north. Included is a painting of the football game at Whiting High School that made the Oilers state champions in 1954.
The calendars are available from the chamber during business hours.
Odlivak was born on Center Street in 1930 and has lived in his current home for 47 years. He has created as many paintings from his own memories as he has from photographs. It's the fact he has lived so many of the scenes he paints that lend genuineness to his work.
"Whiting is an incredibly diverse city," Odlivak said. "We had so many woods when I was kid, and we also had all of the trains and Standard Oil. The diversity made this a special town." Odlivak's favorite painting is the one of the interior of St. Mary's Byzantine Church.
"I was baptized and married in that church," Odlivak said. "I still attend church there, when I can move around well enough."
HOW TO BUY A CALENDAR
Copies of the Whiting Chamber of Commerce 2007 Calendar featuring Al Odlivak can be bought at the chamber office, 1442 119th St. The cost is $15. The chamber also will mail them for $18. Call (219) 659-0292.
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