Historic Videos and Documentaries
An American Treasure
A self-taught artist, his unique style of painting using mixed media, captured the life of the coal miner as no other artist could. He acted as an historian of mining lore and practice. Each painting and sculpture is a record of the actual techniques and mining gear used during the heyday of the Anthracite miner before, during and after World War II. His art was enhanced by his thorough knowledge of the coal pits.
Wyso In His Own Words
Reaching back across the decades, photographer Tom Shillea and producer Steven Lichak captured the rare essence of the artist known as WYSO. Both felt compelled to document the creative work of WYSO while he was alive and working in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Neither knew of each other’s visualand audio recordings until happenstance brought them together 20 years after WYSO’s death.
Today, through their work, we can view and listen to WYSO “in his own words” as he describes and demonstrates the process of working through his ideas to create a sculpture “The Sax Man”, which represents one of Wyso’s many creations based upon the idea of music.
At The Anthracite Heritage Museum
Frank ‘WYSO’ Wysochansky was a man driven to tell the story of Pennsylvania coal miners. Using pen, ink, watercolor, oil, crayon, and sculptural forms, he captured the life of the coal miner by documenting the tools and working conditions of the anthracite coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania, as well as the simple life and modest means of the miners’ families.
Steven Lichak at The Hazelton Art League
Frank “WYSO” Wysochansky’s works range from highly abstracted Mother and Child pieces to haunting portraits of miners to delicate paintings of flowers and landscapes and much in between. Steven J. Lichak from the WYSO Foundation shares this video, which was recorded at the Hazleton Art League in August 2024.