Artist Andy Wing dies

Andy Wing was an artist whose imagination took flight. He found

beauty in unlikely places and combined the things he found with

paint to create original works.

The voice of the 72-year-old was stilled Feb. 3, but his art lives

on in private and public collections.

“Andy was the real thing,” said Bolton Colburn, director of the

Laguna Art Museum, which held a Wing mini-retrospective in 2002.

“He cared about the outcome of his work, but he didn’t let it

affect his art -- and that is what separates the artist from the

painter,” Colburn said. “He lived the life he talked [about], and

there are not many like that around.”

The museum presented Mr. Wing with many awards during his lifetime

for painting and drawing. He also was recognized by the National

Watercolor Society, Downey Museum of Art, Orange County Fair and the

Balboa Methodist Religious Art Festival, among others.

Mr. Wing was juried into shows in Newport Beach, San Diego,

Westwood, Long Beach, La Mirada, 22 times by the Festival of Arts and

“countless times” by the Laguna Art Museum.

His paintings were included in group exhibitions at the New Mexico

Museum of Art, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach City College, the Los

Angeles Art Assn., the Downey Museum of Art, Huntington Beach Allied

Arts Gallery, the Whittier Art Assn. and Cypress, Cerritos and

Chapman colleges.

His works have been sold at numerous galleries -- including the

highly regarded Challis Gallery -- and were bought by museums, the

Xerox Collection and Lytton Savings Collection. The Don Smith Assn.

bought more than 50 pieces.

“My family moved here in 1962, and one of the first things my

mother did was to buy a big, back-lit painting by Andy,” Diane Zelman

said. “It kept our small abode warm and alive.”

Mr. Wing’s death was marked Tuesday morning by Gary Hogan’s

trumpet playing “Body and Soul.”

His body gave out long before his soul.

About 20 years ago, he underwent open heart surgery. The measure

of the town’s affection and respect for Mr. Wing is the amount of

money folks contributed to pay for the surgery. He recovered , but it

took its toll.

Despite his defiant spirit, ill health slowly crept up on Mr.

Wing. It was a sad day for him when he had to give up riding his

bicycle around town, .

“Andy’s painting changed after the surgery,” said his sister,

Nancy Wing of Claremont. “You could almost see his heart in it.

“He listened for a message about his art,” she said. “If a leaf

fell on a painting, there it stayed.”

A “remembrance” will be held at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 29 at the Unitarian

Universalist Fellowship, 429 Cypress St.

“A lot of people want to share their memories,” Nancy Wing said.

“We like the date because it will fly away until the next leap year.”

Mr. Wing is survived by another sister, Jane Wing Petchesky of

Santa Fe, N.M., and by nephew Adam Kaplan, Nancy Wing’s son.

“I shall really miss Andy’s sense of history and his perspective

on art and Laguna Beach,” Arts Coordinator Sian Poeschl said. “Going

into his home [and studio] on Victory Walk was like taking a step

back in time. I was very fortunate to be taken there a couple of

months ago by Larry Gill, where we spent an afternoon talking.”

Andrew Staley Wing was born Sept. 14, 1931, in Greenwich, Conn.,

the son of Andrew Staley Wing I and Janet Fox Wing. He was educated

in art at McBurney School in New York, the Solebury School in

Pennsylvania and the Art Students League of New York. He earned his

bachelor’s in 1955 from Bard College in New York and his master’s

from Cal State Long Beach in 1955.

“He always stayed in touch with his roots and the educators who

shaped his art,” Nancy Wing said.

What Mr. Wing learned and what he knew by instinct he tried to

pass along to students at Cerritos College, Pomona Valley Art Assn.,

Palos Verdes Community Arts and the City of Westminster Recreation

Department. He lectured at Orange Coast and Cypress colleges; at art

associations in Laguna Beach, Whittier and Torana; at the Claremont

Recreation Department; and at the museum, the Unitarian Fellowship

and the Winter Art Festival in Laguna.

“I used to run into him at Albertson’s or Ralphs, and he never

hesitated to share his opinions,” Councilman Wayne Baglin said. “We

also will miss his dialogue with the community through his letters to

the editor.

“He was our renaissance man, truly interested in the

infrastructure of the town and how it worked politically, as well as

being a talented artist,” Baglin said. “Andy’s death is a great loss

to the community.”

-- Barbara Diamond