Karl Stirner at arts trail groundbreaking cropped
Karl Stirner speaks during a news conference for the groundbreaking of the Karl Stirner Arts Trail in April 2011. (lehighvalleylive.com file photo)
BY KENNETH J. ENDICK
Karl Stirner was a mentor to many in a broad spectrum of mediums.
Kenneth J. Endick (Courtesy photo)
He loved his adopted city of Easton and was a tireless promoter of its benefits. One could not walk the streets without folks coming over to Karl to exchange pleasantries of the moment. Rather than feel a certain relative insignificance in his collegiality with everyone, you felt an even deeper admiration for all the lives that he touched.
Of course, he loved Gay Elwell and could hardly bear her untimely loss. He loved his children and their extended families, and would always find an uplifting story about each of them. In fact Karl was an optimist, and even when pushed, never talked in an intemperate way about anyone -- nor can I recall any person who disliked Karl.
I knew him for 30 years. We ran The Gallery at the State Theatre, and our paths intersected on multiple projects. Our friendship grew stronger as we met for lunch at least once a week beginning in the late 1990s. Invariably, our luncheons began with a critique session at his studio, where he would pump me for candid impressions of his current works. I could see his mind in motion through another set of eyes, and indeed changes were sometimes incorporated.
So what did this tall, wraith of a man help me to see? He loved to "do art." He would rework his pieces constantly. One of his sculptures was appropriately named "The 40 Year Head." He was always trying to improve his work, and there was a dynamic energy to his art.
Even when you thought a piece was complete, Karl saw the need for revision.
His studio and adjacent areas contained his life's work, and none of his metal sculptures was ever immune from alteration. They were all akin to children that he would lovingly craft and rework.
Karl had a love for African art and felt that the beautiful primitive forms infused much of Western art, and certainly his. He would often invite me to his buying sprees with African art dealers and educate me on things to look for.
He and Gay were inveterate flea market browsers. On occasion I'd travel with them "to the flea" and I was always amazed at what they could find in a pile of junk (particularly after I'd been through that same pile a few minutes before).
Nothing was as pleasing to me as when Karl would compliment me on an article well-written about a show reviewed, or when I gravitated toward a particular piece of African art for sale and he admired its structure. He saw beauty in so many things -- even if broken.
"Look beyond," he would say. "There is merit in the work, damage and all."
And so this unique man's children now must wrestle with the incredible task of arranging for all of the possessions and all of the rooms full of collected art, trinkets and flea market treasures.
I leave his incredibly rich world knowing that he saw beauty everywhere and created so much himself, and in the process, helped me to see glorious possibilities at every turn.
Kenneth J. Endick is a former Express-Times art reviewer who now lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He is former chairman of the grants committee of the New Jersey Council of the Arts, appointed by Gov. Christie Whitman. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook.