He is too busy creating religious artwork for the Villa’s Sunday bulletin. Gorski calls it "payback."

"The Lord has been good to me," said Gorski, who attends daily Mass. "He’s put me on the earth for many years and I’ve had a good life. Now I want to pay back for all that I’ve received." He donates most of his artwork.

He dates his love of drawing to his childhood, when he used to copy cartoons from the Chicago Tribune’s Sunday comics section. He had no formal art training as a child other than what he says the nuns at St. Ann School taught him.

The oldest of 12 children, Gorski left school at 14 to help support his family, first as a dock worker, loading trucks for an advertising company, Meyer-Both.

"I fell in love with what the artists there were doing," he told The Catholic New World, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese. "I went to evening classes at Crane High School but never finished."

To become an apprentice artist for the company, Gorski said, he took a cut in pay from $10 a week to $7.

Later, he attended evening classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and then the American Academy of Art, also in Chicago. He ultimately became an illustrator of men’s fashions.

He and his late wife, Adeline, to whom he was married for 70 years, made church the center of their lives, along with their children — Jim, Ted and Judy — and became involved in many of its activities.

At St. Odilo Parish in Berwyn, Gorski first began sketching religious figures.

Then, when he and his family moved to Elmhurst, Gorski provided the artwork for his parish bulletins at Mary Queen of Heaven. A sign with pictures that Gorski once drew still stands outside the church. It lists Masses and activities. His painting of the Blessed Mother still hangs in the parish rectory. In 2003, that parish gave him its lifetime achievement award for his contributions.

Gorski drew illustrations for Meyer-Both for 43 years before the firm folded. At age 57, he landed a commercial artist job with the Chicago Tribune, producing pen-and-ink drawings of furniture and later sketched the outsides of houses for the real estate section.

He retired at 65, but continued as a freelance artist doing special projects for Sears, Dominick’s, Santa’s Village, Jack’s Men’s Store, Benson Rixson, Airroom and the Hub. He also drew coloring books for Dominick’s and Santa’s Village.

Occasionally, Gorski had his wife and children pose for some of his artwork.

His real love always has been his religious artwork.

"I love to draw our Blessed Mother and the Sacred Heart," he said. "My favorite is Jesus on Palm Sunday riding on a donkey." He said the drawing, done in acrylics, was created for a Benedictine missionary stationed in Taiwan.

"I combined two images — one of the Good Shepherd and the other the Sacred Heart — into one picture," said Gorski.

He researches his subjects — saints — often with the help of his daughter and other family members.

"He has filing cabinets full of pictures and information," said his son, Ted. "He recently learned how to use the computer, which he often uses now for lettering."

When Gorski gets stuck on how to draw something, he said, he prays to the Sacred Heart for inspiration. It seems to work since his artwork is being used for holy cards and leaflets and has appeared in Catholic newspapers and in religious communities’ informational material.

Gorski had two full-time job offers at age 92. "We were worried Dad would accept one of them," said Ted Gorski. "We sometimes think he is burning the candle at both ends."

When Gorski moved to Villa Addolorata, he transformed the one bedroom in his apartment into an art studio. He sleeps in the living room.

It takes Gorski about eight to 10 hours to do a sketch for the Villa’s Sunday bulletin. Other more complicated drawings take double or triple that time. He works a few hours at a time, taking short breaks in between. He still enjoys swimming and ice skating when time allows. But he said he seldom watches TV.

"It’s too time-consuming and besides, there’s not much of interest on it," he said. "My artwork makes me happy. I’m still alive and so far behind!"