Glen Cove Sculpture Workshop Draws Out of Town Students

The Garvies Point Museum and Preserve Sculpture Workshop meets on Thursday afternoons from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

People from all walks of life, some with no artistic background, learn to shape different materials into works of art.

Gary Durst of Muttontown, a retired psychiatric social worker, sanded his abstract cement forms. Mimi Sherman, a retired teacher from Westbury, chiseled her boy with a dog in alabaster. Miriam Goldsmith, a homemaker from Floral Park, worked on her replica of Sleeping Beauty in raspberry alabaster. 

Durst has delved into any artistic projects before the workshop.

"I can't draw to save my life, that's why I work in abstracts," Durst said. "I'm fascinated with cement and I wanted to do something with it. I saw a notice in the library for this class and I'm very glad I showed up."

The workshop's teacher, Elsi Nydorf, has been a sculptor all her life and has been teaching at the museum for ten years.

Nydorf's background is impressive. She won a prestigious award: a gold medal for sculpture from the National Academy of Design. She worked in Washington, DC, where she was sent abroad by the government as an artist and traveled to countries including India, Sri Lanka and Egypt.

One of her sculptures—a combination of world leaders—is displayed in the Newsday conference room. She also had a huge sculpture at the World Trade Center which was a large figure of a female. At the former Roosevelt Raceway she had sculptures of sports figures. Schools have also commissioned her sculptures of children.

"I have done nothing by the way of earning a living except through art," Nydorf said. "I've been selling my work forever."

While Nydorf makes her living through art, the money is not her only motivation.

"I have so much knowledge to share with my students," Nydorf said. "It's my joy in life. I love influencing people. I don't tell them what to do. It's a matter of suggesting rather than showing. I want them to think about their inner guts. I want them to express those."

According to her students, Nydorf's passion is apparent and helpful.

"She's intellectually prodding. That's the way she impacts me," said Durst who has attended the workshop for over a year and has made about two dozen abstract pieces out of cement. "She makes comments and I think about them for weeks."