Discipline: Visual Art

Paul Zelanski

Discipline: Visual Art
Region: Willington, CT
MacDowell Fellowships: 1963
More: paulzelanski.com/background
Paul Zelanski (1931-2015) was born in Hartford, Connecticut . When he was 10, his sister saved up and gave him an oil paint set — the most memorable and important present of his life to that point, as a child of the Great Depression. He attended Hartford High, and was the first resident of Connecticut’s capitol city to be accepted to Cooper Union. College was interrupted by two years spent in the Army during the Korean War, but Paul returned and earned his certificate in 1955. After Cooper Union, he went on to study under Josef Albers at Yale University. Upon finishing his B.F.A. at Yale in 1957, he attended Bowling Green State University for his master’s degree in painting. Always knowing that he wanted to be an educator, after finishing school he taught at North Texas State University from 1958–62, and then moved north to teach at the University of Connecticut, where he would remain until his retirement in 1995. Paul continued to make collages every day in his studio in Connecticut until his death in July of 2015.

Studios

Adams

Paul Zelanski worked in the Adams studio.

Given to the MacDowell Association by Margaret Adams of Chicago, the half-timbered, stuccoed Adams Studio was designed by MacDowell Fellow and architect F. Tolles Chamberlin ca. 1914. Chamberlin was primarily a painter, but also provided designs for the Lodge and an early renovation of the main hall. The studio’s structural integrity was restored during a thorough renovation in…

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