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A gentle breeze ripples across the deck of the cruise ship as laughter floats from the pool. There are sunbathers, couples enjoying a mid-morning stroll and still others intent on using their camcorder to capture every moment of their journey at sea. Amidst it all is Antoinette Wolfard, perched on a stool before her easel and canvas. Palette in hand, she looks remarkably at home—and with good reason. All told, Wolfard and her husband, Frank, have been on 27 cruises so far, during which she not only paints for herself, but also teaches art to passengers, for the Royal Caribbean International cruise line.
Growing Up in the Windy City
The oldest of four children, Wolfard was born to Anthony and Mary Nazarowski in Chicago, Illinois. Named after her dad, who she describes as a “brilliant and successful man,” Wolfard credits her parents for sharing their philosophy that hard work, personal responsibility for one’s actions and loyalty paves the road to success. As a result, the Nazarowski children became a source of pride to their parents with successful careers and hardworking families.
“We weren’t rich, but we never knew we were poor, we had everything we could want… food, a roof over our heads, warm clothes and love,” says Wolford. “One of my favorite child hood memories is of playing games like kick the can with my three brothers.”
It was at the age of eight, while attending St. Mary of the Angels School, that Wolfard was asked to draw a colored chalk Christmas stable scene on the blackboard. The nuns marveled at the little girl’s work and encouraged her to pursue her talent, which Wolfard says, “was the fire that lit my soul.” And for the next decade, Wolfard painted in earnest, celebrating her artistic gifts.
Marriage, Children & Home Cooking
By necessity, art was put on the back burner when Wolfard married Donald Kaczmarek in 1958 and the two started a family. The couple had six children, but tragically lost three (their second, fifth and sixth)—all at the age of one—to Wernig Hoffman’s Disease, a rare and terminal genetic neurological muscular
affliction. But with three surviving children, Rosemarie, Thomas and Mitchell, Wolfard says she knew they had a responsibility to go on with their lives and accept that the loss was out of their hands.
In the years that followed, Wolfard owned and operated two restaurants in the Chicago area. For Kaczmarek’s Home Cooking, Wolfard rose at 3 am each morning to start the bread dough and begin baking the day’s pies. Wolfard’s second venture was Toni’s Submarine Hut, located across the street from an elementary school.
“On the weekends, the children who were old enough served customers, washed dishes and swept floors,” says Wolfard. “That was my way of passing on the work ethic my parents taught me.”
Career & Life Changes
During the 1970s, Wolfard began working for Bausch & Lomb as a sales representative, climbing up through the ranks to an international task force and ultimately was promoted to regional sales manager for 20 Midwestern states. Wolfard also took time out for a two year sabbatical to Mexico, where she rekindled her passion for art. “I set up my easel here and there, and the people were so generous, often bringing me a sandwich or cold drink. It was wonderful.”
She left Bausch & Lomb to start her own optical consulting practice in 1985, and two years later, she became involved in real estate, holding licenses in Illinois, California and Arkansas, where she also owned a Century 21 franchise.
In 1990, now divorced, she married Frank Wolfard, a fiber optics engineer. It turned out they had gone to the same schools and lived in the same neighborhood. “And we had both been married all our lives,” says Wolfard, “just not to each other.” Not long after marrying, the Wolfards moved to California, where her children Rosemarie and Mitchell live. She joined the Hemet Valley Art Association, and began adding her own distinctive blend of color to the town, by way of custom murals at the Camelot Retirement Village and St. George Plaza, among others. The Wolfard home is also awash in murals including an Italian Rivera scene on the laundry room doors. Plus she painted their concrete patio to look like flagstone, which prompts passers-by to stop and touch, because it looks so real.
Together, the Wolfards have a total of 23 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. And when she turned 71 in May, her son, Mitch, formerly a navy chef, and Rosemarie’s executive chef husband, Joe, teamed up to prepare her birthday meal.
After five attempts at retirement, Wolfard finally made it official in 2009—that is, if you call retiring teaching art classes at home, on cruises and for Inter Valley Health Plan. Wolfard's "retirement" also includes writing a suspense novel and a nonfiction work about the public school system, crocheting for her family, and of course her own artwork. Wolfard manages all this while coping with trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic pain condition, as well as rheumatoid arthritis, both of which were diagnosed about five years ago.
To Wolfard, however, the challenges are simply part of living. “My life has been one huge, beautiful and continuous mural,” she says. “I couldn’t ask for anything better!”
“All of life is art to me,” says Wolfard, “whether you’re cooking a meal, searching for the precise words that enable a reader to lose themselves in a wonderful story, or finding the perfect combination of colors to capture a sunset on canvas.” Wolfard takes great joy in providing her students with both the techniques and inspiration to paint, as well as in helping them learn how to do so affordably.
For more information about Wolfard and economical ways that you, too, can pursue art, visit her website at: http://www.anyone-can-paint-artist.com
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