Kids & Family
Dearborn Family’s Legacy of Art Lives On in New Exhibit
The Natkowski's father and son art stay in Dearborn at the Henry Ford Centennial Library after their death.
You never know how many people you will reach in a lifetime. With so many people clamoring for the spotlight it is easy to miss the ones who stay behind the scenes to work their own magic, but it is well worth the effort.
That was the case with Lawrence Joseph Natkowski (Nat to his friends) and his son Lawrence John Natkowski (Larry), two very different men who shared a love of art, nature and community.
"Nat" was a sign painter around the Dearborn area for years. His signs can still be seen at local business, including Rodegher’s Used Books on Michigan Avenue.
His daughter, Peg Patrick, described his work with the sign painting business that he continued right up until his death.
“My dad started out as an assistant sign painter to my grandfather, Joseph Natkowski," she said.
She explained that sign painting was always a part of his life even during his deployment at Pearl Harbor, and a 30-year career as a top production designer at Ford Motor Company.
What she remembers most fondly were the works he did within the community.
“My father painted hundreds of boats in the summer. He was famous for his portraits featuring a person retiring, getting married, graduating, or celebrating an anniversary. He used to go around to gas stations and paint the windows for the holidays with Santa and reindeer and elves," Patrick said.
His son Larry was also a naturally gifted artist with a mind of his own. Often a quiet man, he was just as happy spending hours tending his garden with his wife as he was sitting at a camp fire with friends. Larry was “off of the charts” intelligent, inseparable from his wife Kathryn, and made the best cheesecake you’d ever like to eat.
What was unexpected for this unassuming and somewhat reclusive man was just how many people he had reached during his brief 48 years on earth.
According to his sister Peg Patrick, “If Larry had a picture in his head, he could make that idea come to life.
"He did not sell many pieces but chose to give many of his creations away as gifts,” she said.
An outpouring of love and of Larry’s artwork has been steadily gaining momentum since he died on April 12. There is such a high demand for Larry's work that the city is hosting it in an exhibit at the Henry Ford Centennial Library.
The display will remain until early September.
“He used several different mediums effortlessly. This collection of pieces demonstrates his ability to work with oil, watercolor, pastel, pencil and ceramic, to name a few,” said Patrick.
His sister’s grief and her need to have Larry’s life continue reaching people are perfectly encapsulated in her writings below.
Ten Ways to Honor and Celebrate Larry's Time on Earth
By Peg Patrick
• Whenever you venture into the deep and leafy Michigan woods, and you let yourself get quiet and still, so that you are able to observe the gentle state of nature, you will be honoring and celebrating Larry's time on Earth.
• If you happen to love animals of all shapes and sizes, and you take immaculate care of the ones that you've taken into your home, and if you feel that they enrich your life just as much and in some ways more than humans, you will be honoring and celebrating Larry's time on Earth.
Find out what's happening in Dearbornfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
• If you regularly make time to enjoy listening to your favorite music, and you really like turning other people on to a ton of great songs that you discovered, you will be honoring and celebrating Larry's time on Earth.
• If you are a friend of Bill W., and you whole-heartedly support and care about others who happen to be a part of that wonderful community, you will be honoring and celebrating Larry's time on Earth.
Find out what's happening in Dearbornfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
• Any and every time that you hold on tight to your personal convictions, especially when it pushes back against a popular, half-baked, glib or woefully ignorant opposition, you will be honoring and celebrating Larry's time on Earth.
• If you have been blessed with the gift of creativity, and you create original works, not necessarily to turn a profit, or even to impress anyone in particular, but because you know that it makes you and other people happy, you will be honoring and celebrating Larry's time on Earth.
• If you are lucky enough to marry your best friend and closest confidante, and you cherish them with all of your heart, and you hold them in the highest of esteem, you will be honoring and celebrating Larry's time on Earth.
• If your idea of a meaningful gift for someone is a freshly baked pie or cheesecake with all the fixin's, made from scratch with your own two hands, you will be honoring and celebrating Larry's time on Earth.
• If you ever take the time to learn everything there is to know about the care and handling of orchids, and you are able to nurture them with the perfect balance of patience and TLC, you will be honoring and celebrating Larry's time on Earth.
• If you know or happen to meet a sensitive soul with a benevolent heart, and it seems as though most people don't understand them very well, but you choose to treat them with kindness and respect anyway, you will be honoring and celebrating Larry's time on Earth.
Rest in Peace, Larry.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
