Oma Ziegenfuss (George Schafer)

(Bio courtesy of Mani)

Artist, visionary, mystic, renegade, non-conformist, writer, philosopher, romantacist

is to name a few of the titles that can be applied to George Schafer - Oma Ziegenfuss.

Painting under the pseudonym, Nan Cuz, has added another name to the list "Oma".

As to what Oma did best and for what he can truly be recognized as is for the viewer

to decide. Without any doubt, however, Oma was a true visionary with a passion to

express his dreams and visions. He never considered himself an artist, however, but

felt that he was the hand of the "Mother" and painted what he saw in the space between

the worlds which he perceived. Oma was born on March 25,1926 in Leinfelde Germany,

a village in the northern Germany that is on the border with Denmark. At the age of 15

Oma was enrolled in the Hitler Youth Organization which was obligatory for the boys at

that time. His true allegiance, however, was to the Danish people. During World War ll he

was stationed in Denmark and he distributed pamphlets for the Danish Resistance. He was

betrayed, captured by the Gestapo, found guilty of espionage and was sentenced to death

at age 17. He was jailed in different concentration camps while awaiting execution and was

interrogated and tortured. Twice he was placed in front of firing squads in an effort to coerce

him into betraying the other members of the Resistance. His sentence was mysteriously

commuted by Himmler to 15 years just prior to the end of the war which graciously ended

his internment which consisted of hard labor in 5 different concentration camps. After he

was released Oma traveled with the Romani gypsies for 2 years learning from them how

they dealt with persecution and perceived at that time that their pain was transcended

through their creativity. Oma became fascinated in understandingthe origins of hatred

and violence in the human being. With this in mind he studied philosophy, psychology,

history, mythology and semantics. In 1947, Oma returned to the University in Fulda

Germany. Thereafter, he worked at a psychiatric and neurological institute in Zurich

Switzerland where he met and collaborated with Dr Albert Hoffman participating with

him in research and experiments on time and space as well as experiments with

synthetic mescaline. Oma wrote an article entitled, "Experimental Research on Time

and Space", which initiated a personal correspondence with Albert Einstein. His

experiments with synthetic mescaline helped him to understand and to remember

the visions that he had experienced as a baby. This led him later on to write and to

illustrate the book," In The Kingdom of Mescal", which paralleled his visions after

having been severely burned, resulting in the permanent scarring of his abdomen.

Around 1950, after his work and study in Zurich, Oma became a journalist for Die

Welt, a Hamburg newspaper. There he met Ingmar Heinneman, his future wife, whom

he renamed Nan Cuz. She was part Mayan and part German and worked as a

photographer for the newspaper. They married in 1952 and shortly thereafter, Oma,

who had been teaching himself to paint, began to use the name Nan Cuz as his

signature but continued to write under the name Georg Schafer.In addition to his

regular job and painting, Oma freelanced and expanded his writting with other

magazines and newspapers. He was sent on assignments to do interviews in

East Berlin as well as in England. He came in contact with Martin Heidegger,

Carl Kustav Jung and S.I. Hayakawa. A turning point in Oma 's life was meeting

Lama Anagarika Govinda, a German Buddhist monk who had traveled in Tibet

and from whom Oma learned the Tibetan color system, which is one in which

colors correspond to sounds. He further integrated them with the forms of the

five elements from the Greeks which became a basis for his artwork. This system

enabled Oma to reach a deeper level of expression. It was Oma's wish that his

painting be the language to bring people to understand that which we all have in

unison by using our archetype symbols, colors, sounds and forms. In the mean

time, Oma began to have exhibitions and to write for Der Spiegal. He was invited to

show at the Musee d' Art Moderne in Paris. There he met Miguel Angel Asturias,

Nobel peace prize winner from Guatemala who was the Ambassador to France. In

1970, he invited Oma to exhibit at the Presidential Palace in Guatemala City. After

the exhibit Oma decided to make Guatemala his residence. He first worked in the

slums helping to train people in working skills. Then he worked with a team of doctors

to assess the health conditions of the Mayan Indians around Lake Atitlan. This led

to his brief return to Germany at which time he raised $1,000,000 for medical

equipment predominantly from the sale of his paintings. In 1974 Oma founded the

Oma Ling Pa Temple in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. The center evolved for 4 years

at which time Oma separated from his wife and began traveling to the United States

to give exhibitions in Boulder Colorado, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Fe.

In 1979 he met Sherry Munson, at the Munson Gallery in Santa Fe. Mani, as she

was later named would become his wife and mother of his 4 children. They traveled

first to Sri Lanka to visit Nyaniponika Mahathera, the head monk of the Theravada

School of Buddhism with whom he had corresponded for years. Oma had intended

to repaint the temple art that was in dire need of repair; however, Nyanoponika

wasn't prepared to receive Oma's pregnant wife. After their first child was born

in Sri Lanka immigration problems ensued. After being put in jail, Mani and her

daughter Maya returned to the United States while Oma was forced to remain

behind and was ultimately sent back to Germany via the assistance of his publisher.

It was 8 months later that Mani and Oma were reunited in Germany. After 3 months,

they returned to Guatemala where they would spend the next 7 years making their

home among the Mayan Indians at which time they expanded their family. For Oma

Guatemala was becoming a dying culture under the "boots of progress" and he

realized that it was time to leave. They decided to make the United States a

stepping stone while he searched for a country that would be receptive to his

vision. They made the move to Chatham , Massachusetts, a small town on

Cape Cod where Mani's family had roots. It was isolating for Oma and he was

not in good health. One year and half later Oma suffered a heart attack. He

recovered and prepared for an exhibition in Seattle, Wa. The exhibition was

successful but stressful. Oma returned but had another attack on January 11,

from which he did not recover. It was January 11 1991, 2 weeks after their 4th

child was born. Mani spent 8 more months in Chatham at which time she

collaborated with and eventually married Roger Stephan, (Shorba), who had

worked and studied with Oma. They wished to work together to make Oma's

work known to the world. Unfortunately, there was too much conflict and

despite 12 years of sincere attempts, they were not able to bring Oma's work

to the public in a definative way and separated. Mani is presently the owner of

a large collection of Oma's work.