Loretta’s mother Vicki, a great gardener, works the old garden cultivator at the family farm where Loretta grew up near Constableville, NY, with Loretta’s older siblings in tow. Photographer and date unknown. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Family including Loretta’s maternal uncles haying, likely at the family farm in Westernville, NY, before her family moved to the farm near Constableville, NY. Photographer and date unknown. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Loretta (kneeling) and siblings with their aunt, Sister Regis, at their grandmother “Babcah”’s wake in her farm house in Westernville, NY. In keeping with local tradition, both Loretta’s maternal grandparents’ caskets were laid out in the parlor at home. Photographer unknown, 1958. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Loretta’s commitment to documenting and sharing her community’s experience starts with her own extensive collection of photos and stories. Photo by Camilla Ammirati, 2017.
Loretta’s mother Vicki (left) with her Polish family (family name Mierek) at the Westernville, NY farm. Photographer and date unknown. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
This photo of Loretta’s youngest sister Janet with her lambs was Loretta’s reference for the “Shepherdess” painting in her Family Farm portrait series project. Photographer unknown, c. 1980s. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Loretta’s maternal aunts Julia and Sister Regis, grandmother, and two other visiting nuns (left to right) at the Westernville farm, c. 1920s. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Loretta’s father playing his accordion, which he learned to play by ear, in the original family house near Constableville. The instrument was later lost in a house fire, but a brother continues to play accordion by ear and loves polka music. Photo by Vicki Lepkowski, c. 1956. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Loretta and siblings line up for school in front of the garage where they lived for nine years, the three youngest girls sharing a bed, while her parents rebuilt after a house fire at her family farm on Kentner Rd. near Constableville. NY. Photographer unknown, 1960. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Loretta’s parents, John S. and Victoria “Vicki” Lepkowski (originally Mierek) after they’d married and moved to their farm. Photographer unknown, c. early 1940s. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Loretta’s First Communion (Loretta 4th from left, front row) at St. Hedwig’s Catholic Church (Houseville, NY), c. 1958. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Loretta’s two oldest siblings climbing a big snowbank on their farm in the late 1940s, “when the winters had lots and lots of snow.” Photo by Vicki Lepkowski. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Loretta’s niece, daughter, and son (left to right) with the Easter lamb cake. Loretta and her family continue to carry on many of the cultural traditions she grew up with. Photo by Loretta Lepkowski, c. 2008. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Loretta says her father John (pictured straddling the high cross plank), would have been an amazing engineer. Self-taught beyond his eighth grade education, he figured out countless challenges, from using the snowbanks to roll heavy logs, to building this 50’ high and 140’ long barn for loose hay and dairy cows on the farm. He built the structure largely on his own, with one friend helping occasionally. Photographer and date unknown. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
Growing up, church was central to family life, with traditions like celebrating First Communion, weddings, taking part in processions, getting your Easter basket blessed, dressing up for holy days, and even enjoying other aspects of Polish culture from music to dancing to foods, being closely connected to church life and activities. Photographer and date unknown. Courtesy of Loretta Lepkowski.
When receiving this award, Loretta had recently completed two extensive portrait painting projects, one featuring local family farms and another Tug Hill Sages for the Venerable Folks of Tug Hill project. Photo by Camilla Ammirati, 2017.
Loretta’s sister Maya is very involved at St. Hedwig’s Church in Houseville, NY, helping carry on many of the Polish and Catholic traditions that have been so important to Loretta’s family and others in the community. Photo by Camilla Ammirati, 2017.

Glenfield, Lewis County
Local Artist & Community Scholar

Loretta is an artist with deep roots in the rugged land of Tug Hill and a folkloristic approach to painting. Her warmth, curiosity, and enthusiasm mean she’s always seeking people with interesting stories and looking for ways to share these stories with others. Besides her interests in local agricultural and woodland heritage, she is especially knowledgeable about the Polish American culture of her own family and of others in the area. Through her painting and project partnerships–including work like her series on family farms and her portraits of long-established Tug Hill residents–she documents not only individual experiences but a way of life and a sense of regional identity. She also shares regional experience through art, nature, and culture-focused workshops for children and families. Loretta is deeply proud of the hardy lifestyle of her community, and she is generous in sharing her knowledge of it. She has contributed endless hours of volunteer time—and hard driving through the Tug Hill snow—to projects for TAUNY and other organizations that present local history and culture to the public.

 

This feature on Loretta Lepkowski is a segment of the Profiles of North Country Heritage video TAUNY produced in 2017 in celebration of the year’s award recipients.

 

Listen in to a few samples from when, during documentation for the award in 2017, Loretta sat down with TAUNY Director of Research and Programs Camilla Ammirati (over tea and a delicious meal Loretta had made, inspired by her Tug Hill heritage) to share stories of her experience from childhood through recent work on projects using her art to celebrate local life:

Loretta describes how she and her siblings would “make our own fun” as kids on their Tug Hill farm, from rolling down the hill in an oil barrel to jumping off the rafters into the hay, and more.

 

Loretta describes how Polish traditions, from rites of passage to ways of passing the time–including language, food, church events, weddings, music, and dance–were a big part of her family and community life growing up.

 

Loretta shares a story about how, though not as fluent as elders in her family and community, she was able to use one of her own remembered phrases in a pinch to help someone.

 

Loretta talks about her interest in working on paintings that tell stories, such as the ones she’s done of the hay mow her father built and her sister caring for her lambs.

  • Award Evergreen
  • Award Year 2017
  • Location Glenfield, NY (Lewis County, Tug Hill)
  • Categories Farm & Home, Religion & Ethnicity, Small Town