Painting Resilience: The Life and Art of Fred Terna

by Julia Mayer

Overview

"Painting Resilience" is Julia Mayer's vivid personal exploration of the role Fred Terna's art played in surviving four concentration camps; his post-WWII marriage to his emotionally scarred childhood sweetheart - a fellow survivor; their escape to France, Canada, and the United States; their divorce; and his subsequent happy marriage to a daughter of survivors and the family they created.

Included are reproductions of more than two dozen of Fred's works, along with personal photos captured by Fred's son, photographer Daniel Terna.​ Fred's art is held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Vienna's Albertina Collection, and Israel's Yad Vashem, among others.

Fred says that living through the Holocaust was luck but living with it takes skill. Julia wanted to discover what those skills are, record how Fred acquired them, and illuminate the manner in which his art gave rise to Fred's "example that painful and destructive memories do not exclude a happy and productive life," as he puts it.

"I have known Fred as a family friend since I was a young girl," recalls Julia. "But it wasn't until six years ago during a tour of his studio and art archive - I was in my mid-20s; Fred was 91 - that I realized I needed to be a conduit for Fred's life and art inspiring future generations."

"In the camps we promised each other that the one who survives would tell the story," Fred told Julia. Today, Fred is 97 and still telling the story and still painting; Julia is 31, and "Painting Resilience" is her effort at ensuring that Fred's story is available to future generations. Upon reading the finished book, Fred told Julia, "By telling my story you have lifted a tremendous burden off my shoulders."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781735876221
Publisher:	JBJ Vision LLC
Publication date:	12/02/2020
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Julia Mayer is always searching for interesting stories and has built a career on asking people to share theirs. Fred Terna's is one of the most fascinating stories Julia has heard, and is captured in her latest book, "Painting Resilience: The Life and Art of Fred Terna," published in 2020 by JBJ Vision. She also enjoys learning about the experiences of both young adults and philanthropists in her role as Director of Philanthropy at Year Up, a nonprofit that provides workforce development training for young adults. Above all, Julia seeks to build trust with interesting people so she can ask the questions other people don't. Julia's first book, the young adult novel "Eyes in the Mirror," was published in 2011 by Sourcebooks. Julia has a Masters in Management from Harvard University, a BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Boston University, and is a graduate of Bard High School Early College. An avid swimmer and kayaker, she lives in Boston, MA with her husband.

Table of Contents

Part 1.................................................................................................1

Introduction (2019).....................................................................................................3

Chapter 1 - Drawing Out the Memories (1945)........................................15

Chapter 2 - An Introduction to the Resistance (1938).........................21

Chapter 3 - Being Honest But Not Terrifying (1939).............................31

Chapter 4 - Worse than the Work was the Fear (1941)......................39

Chapter 5 - Occasion to Sing (1942)...............................................................51

Chapter 6 - Packed into the Camp (1943)..................................................59

Chapter 7 - Sketching or Working (1943)....................................................69

Chapter 8 - A New Form of Courtship (1943)............................................77

Chapter 9 - Ash and Smoke (1944)................................................................83

Chapter 10 - To Keep Marching (1944-1945)...............................................91

Chapter 11 - Shuffling Skeletons (April 1945)........................................... 99

Part 2............................................................................................. 107

Introduction..............................................................................................................109

Chapter 12 - The First One Back (Summer 1945)...................................113

Chapter 13 - Unable to Make a Life in Prague (1946).........................123

Chapter 14 - Gaining Strength (1947)..........................................................133

Chapter 15 - The Mechanics (1947-1951).....................................................141

Chapter 16 - Something Seemed to Break (late 1950s-1960s).......157

Chapter 17 - Sinking (1960s)............................................................................ 165

Chapter 18 - Connecting Anew (1960s-1970s).........................................177

Chapter 19 - Stepping in to Answer (1980s)........................................... 183

Chapter 20 - The Art Speaks (1980s-2000s)........................................... 189

Epilogue......................................................................................................................203

Endnotes....................................................................................................................205

Acknowledgements..............................................................................................209

About Fred Terna & His Art................................................................................213

About the Author....................................................................................................215

Editorial Reviews

Eloquent and moving. Not many of us can witness to the witnesses, but Julia Mayer's intimate cross-generational account of Fred Terna's story as artist and Holocaust survivor makes clear that even across many generations, it is possible to carry this legacy forward.

- Laura Levitt, Professor of Religion, Jewish Studies and Gender, Temple University. Author of "American Jewish Loss After the Holocaust" (NYU Press, 2007); and "The Objects that Remain" (Penn State University Press, 2020)

"Painting Resilience: The Life and Art of Fred Terna" allows Terna to generously share his experience before, during, and after the Holocaust through both his recollections and artwork, all with great honesty, insight, and sensitivity.

- Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

Julia Mayer's "Painting Resilience: The Life and Art of Fred Terna" interweaves the language of the art works and the personal stories of Fred Terna and his first wife Stella who survived Terezin and Auschwitz. The biography addresses traumatic memories of survivors that one can never escape.

- Renate Evers, Director of Collections, Leo Baeck Institute New York

"Painting Resilience" is a story about family, human injury, suffering, death, life, beauty, and extraordinary strength. In these pages, I feel artist Fred Terna's indomitable spirit, his profound wisdom, and considerable insights about life before and during the Third Reich. Perhaps, more importantly, in them, I see lessons germane and apropos for today.

- Willa M. Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Mississippi

In "Painting Resilience," the talented Julia Mayer depicts recurring motifs running through Fred Terna's work, and explores how life and art intersect before, during, and after the Holocaust. Taking you inside Terna's studio to understand his process and his philosophy, Mayer invites you to share in her and Terna's deep personal rapport.

- Kate Chertavian, Founder, Kate Chertavian Fine Art

From the Publisher