Of average height, but more than 300 pounds, Ants Vomm used to joke that he was a big man with an insect's name.
It was that gentle humour that enabled the painter, sculptor, animator and poet to become a successful caricaturist.
At the CNE, Oktoberfest parties, and countless weddings and bar mitzvahs, Mr. Vomm delighted people with his quick drawings. For 14 years he was a fixture at Ontario Place, sitting at his easel, often wearing a goofy sombrero to keep the sun out of his eyes.
In January, when diabetes caused his kidneys to fail and he could only breathe with the help of a tube, he asked his younger sister, Mai Jarve, for a pen and paper so he could keep sketching.
On Aug. 11, at age 72, Ants Erik Vomm died of heart attack.
Over the years, his subjects had included former Ontario premier Bill Davis, actress Julie Andrews, former prime minister Joe Clark and the Pointer Sisters, more than 135,000 caricatures in all. And Mr. Vomm understood that the secret to a good caricaturist was the ability to see a subject's personality.
"The key," he said in a 1991 interview, "is to look at someone and be able to pick out something in their features and expand on it."
He was born in Tartu, Estonia, to a sculptor father and a mother who was an artist and teacher.
In 1944, with the Soviet invasion of Estonia, Mr. Vomm, his sister and mother fled to Germany, where they were interned in a camp for displaced persons.
"We lived in the camp for four years, and were better off than the Germans," Vomm recalled. "Food was scarce in Germany at the time. We were under American protection and depended on the Americans for food, which we got."
Jarve recalled that, as a boy, her brother loved Walt Disney. He saw the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at least half a dozen times and would entertain her with his own illustrations of fairy tales.
In 1948, unable to immigrate to Canada or the United States, the family moved to Venezuela.
Mr. Vomm studied art at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas y Artes Aplicads in Caracas and, while still a student, exhibited with Venezuelan masters at the Museo de Bellas Artes.
The family was finally able to move to Canada in 1953.
Mr. Vomm continued his studies with night classes at the Ontario College of Art and found work as a sign painter before becoming a freelance artist.
With his mother and sister, he helped found the Society of Estonian Artists in Toronto in 1956.
Mr. Vomm never married. When he was a teen in Germany, he fell in love with a girl who was also on her way to Venezuela, but when he arrived, he found that that she'd married another man. At that point he decided to dedicate himself to art.
Vomm began as a caricaturist at Expo 67 in Montreal and was popular enough to be invited to Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan, allowing him to indulge in his other passion: travel.
As he made his way from Rome to El Paso, from Whitehorse to Caracas, Mr. Vomm always drew and painted the people, things and places that he saw.
He developed a style of painting that used motifs of places in a quilt-like style. One such painting, The Changing World, is on permanent display at the Toronto Reference Library.
His dictionary Estonian Compared to 60 Other Languages is also there. The work of 25 years, it's as thick as a phone book.
Mr. Vomm also published three books of Estonian poetry.
Although he painted, sculpted, wrote poetry and completed an 11-minute animated film called Flower in Carrotland, he was best known for his caricatures.
"I've used 62 different materials in my work during my lifetime, but this is what gave me my recognition," he said.
"Everywhere I go, I meet someone I've sketched," he said.
"I was on a bus in Boston once and a woman sat down next to me. She kept looking at me and finally said, `That was a nice sketch you made of my son at the CNE in Toronto.'"
Mr. Vomm leaves his mother Benita Vomm, his sister and nephews Jaak and Indrek.
STEVE KRAVITZ
Staff Reporter
Toronto Star
Ants Erik Vomm, 72, devoted his life to art (1)
Kuumad uudised | 08 Sep 2003 | EWR
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I had the privilege of meeting him in the Versa Care Centre where my Aunt Rose is residing. In talking to him, he told me that he used to have a booth at the CNE and do carticatures. He did about 8 or nine for me, one of me, my mother and Aunt Rose and Mickey Mouse, which I framed. He was a very very kind man. He wore an old tattered straw hat and I bought him a new one, but it was too late. I bought him some art paper and magic markers as a gift for him. He made me so happy just by knowing him.
This past weekend, there was a resident wearing a straw hat and it brought tears to my eyes. I would have liked if he could have been around alot longer, but I guess God needed him.
Thank you Ants for all your drawings and great conversation.
This past weekend, there was a resident wearing a straw hat and it brought tears to my eyes. I would have liked if he could have been around alot longer, but I guess God needed him.
Thank you Ants for all your drawings and great conversation.
Kuumad uudised
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