User talk:BeckyBT

Anatole (Tony) Bilokur
(Anatolij) (9 September 1939- 23 August 2013)

[|PAFA]

PAFA Alumni of The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia was a Sculptor [|Sculptor] primarily working in Bronze and Stone from Ukraine. [|Ukraine] ** He was the first underclassman (non Senior) to win the prestigious PAFA's art competition, which awarded trips to Europe and did it two years running... He had a certain type of charisma and was known to be a ladies man. He had a head injury as a child, while sliding down a rafter in a barn which later led to moodiness and did suffer from bipolar disease.

He was not a prolific sculptor and often refused to sell his projects when he either fell in love with them himself and refused to sell them or found fault with the purchaser who didn't deserve or understand them properly...

He was an avid bicycle rider and often used found objects to enhance his works. He also was a cigarette smoker which eventually did lead to his death from esophageal cancer.

Life:
Born outside of Kiev, Ukraine on his families farm to Maksym Bilokur (7 Apr 1901-June 1990)and Ewdokia Enohtenko Bilokur (26 June 1900-23 Jan 1988). He was destined to be in the Arts, as he was influenced to look outside the family "business" by a local relative - Ukrainian folk artist/painter, Kateryna Bilokur [|Kateryna Vasylivna Bilokur]who lived in the area of the family farm or oblast.

The family was forced to leave their farm, [|(see: Soviet Collectivization and World War II)] at History of Ukraine Wiki page... after Tony's oldest brother Peter (who had been indoctrinated in school) reported them to the authorities as objectionists. They were imprisoned in multiple work camps and later were helped to escape over 1,100 miles to the sea, where his parents and brother Borys took a boat (the General S D Sturgis) from Bremerhaven, Germany to New York, in America -arriving on July 12, 1950 when Tony was only ten years old. Peter stayed behind in Ukraine near Moscow and his sister Halia, also ended up staying - near Odessa / Crimea, Ukraine.

It is believed that the family arrived in the United States through Philadelphia, where they lived and saved to buy a new farm in Cumberland County, New Jersey in the Millville area.

Where Tony eventually built his workshop and forge, in an old chicken coop.

Which he later moved to the main house after his parents passed.

Family:
Married: 18 Jan 1961- 6 July 1972 to: Diana Helene Crocheron (1 Oct 1941-2 Jan 2000) Divorced

Brother of (Boris) Borys Bilokur (30 Nov. 1931-19 Nov. 2005)

Survived by: Rebecca Melanie Bilokur-Tobias, born Dec. 1962; Melinda Weigt, born Sept. 1967; and John Anatole Bilokur, born Jan 1965 from Diana

Oksana DeCarrasco, born 15 June 1972 from Patricia McCarty 

"Chosen" daughter: Melody Mann Rumoured to have fathered a child, out of wedlock, prior to his marriage to Diana... 
 * Bulleted list item

Selected Works:
Woodmere Art Gallery


 * ==== Bronze Sculptures: ==== Pictures can be seen


 * === Sculpture in Stone: ===


 * ===== Other medias: =====

Artists Inspired or Commendations:

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KB Petrillo was quoted as saying "Let me introduce through my art my first teacher, Anatole Bilokur... I found him fascinating. When I met him, in 1979, his work had taken on abstact elements. He was getting ready to have a show with Peter Max. I recall making fun of his odd waxed drippy stuff that I saw around his studio, he later made bronze casts of them. I was smoking pot with him, his home grown, and then all of a sudden I saw these horrid little wax drippings as elegant ballet dancers. I was flabbergasted. Elements of the farm life are added to make this memory a memorial of what I left behind when I came to Syracuse. It was there in his studio... that I learned how to peal the veil from my eyes and could see. He was a great teacher.  He created the right circumstance for me to look and see differently. I will write more on the subject of seeing and looking, the differences and the similarities."


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Masha Archer, jewelry designer; visits Tony in her movie "A Ritual of the Eye" a Film by Gyorgy Vlasenko as a person who supported her endeavors in her art

See Also:
 [|Russian Sculptors] Lists of Russian Artists