If you ever wander find yourself in a small alleyway off an unassuming street in what was once Detroit’s own Little Poland, you may be lucky enough to witness folk art gone wild, exploding out beyond its boundaries, too robust and dynamic to be contained. To the neighbours it’s Hamtramck Disneyland, but to Dmytro Szylak, a retired General Motors assembly line worker, it’s a hobby that’s kept him busy and vibrant well into his 90s.
Sitting off the I-75, Hamtramck was once a bustling little Polish enclave, meriting visits from John F Kennedy and the world’s first Polish Pope in 1987. Today, it’s an ethnic melting pot with many of the original residents in their senior years. Few original Polish businesses remain, such as Dudek’s where you can still purchase placki, pierogi, and naleshniki, and there still stand a Polish and Ukrainian church around the corner from Dmytro’s famous home.
Dmytro’s ever-evolving art installation rises above his backyard and into the electrical wires overhead, spanning two garages. Decorated with found objects and kitsch art, you see the influence of his Ukrainian background everywhere – the Ukrainian Trident dominates the towering structure; many of the objects are painted bright yellow and blue, the colours of the Ukrainian flag; Ukrainian city names decorate in English and in Cyrillic.
The sound of the saw never seems to stop as Dmytro works on his next piece in the garage that he uses as his workshop. A friendly man, he was more than willing to take us on a tour of the back yard, especially once I spoke to him in Ukrainian. He showed us many of the new pieces he had produced – his preference being for artwork with motion such as whirlygig, windmills, and windcatchers – all crafted from wood and steel and decorated with paint, silk flowers, photos, posters, hats, dolls, glassware….you name it. He also has the largest collection of carousel and hobby horses I have ever seen in a Folk Art installation and they are lovingly incorporated high up where they can be seen by all. As he demonstrated many of his new machines, he chatted with me about his artwork, where he came from, and asked me all about my family.
For a man with absolutely no art education or background, his work can be really beautiful. I find that I can take or leave Folk Art, but you can see the determination in his work, and his ties to Ukraine and to the US are evident in every piece he lovingly crafts. Everything has a place and a reason in his odd menagerie and I wish I could have been there when the entire installation lights up at night.
If you’re ever at 12087 Klinger St. in Detroit, head out to the back alley (don’t worry about all the barking dogs). Say hello to Dmytro, sign his guestbook and give him a ten for his troubles (he is retired after all) so he can continue his work and maybe he’ll take you for a tour as well…
