Norwich – A pencil drawing of President Abraham Lincoln was added Monday to the second-floor City Hall hallway, which is becoming a Lincoln portrait gallery that also showcases local artists’ talents.

The family of deceased artist Joseph, “Jo-Jo” Kolodnicki Jr. on Monday presented city officials with the elegant prize-winning pencil shaded drawing that so captures Lincoln’s image and features it could be mistaken for a photograph. The portrait was the People’s Choice winner – with a prize of $300 in Lincoln $5 bills – in a 2011 Lincoln-themed art show that accompanied the city’s contest to replicate a portrait painting of Lincoln that had been stolen from City Hall.

Kolodnicki didn’t enter the formal contest, but when local arts advocate Elanah Sherman organized an alternative Lincoln-themed show for images of any style, Kolodnicki, who usually favored colorful drawings of animals, created his pencil shaded drawing of Lincoln.

Kolodnicki had given the drawing to his mother, Virginia Perry Kolodnicki, who presented it to the city Monday.

The local arts community was shocked and saddened to learn on Oct. 30, 2018, that Kolodnicki was killed in a stabbing in Colchester that police said stemmed from Kolodnicki’s jealousy of his wife’s co-worker. The co-worker, Elmar Baker of 55 Renee Drive, Apt. 4, Colchester, was charged with the murder.

Kolodnicki, 38, a U.S Postal Service mail carrier and self-taught artist, had become a familiar face in the downtown Norwich arts scene, delivering mail to the Norwich Arts Center gallery and chatting with volunteers staffing the art shows. He displayed his works there at times as well.

His 14-year-old son, Joshua Kolodnicki, a freshman at Ella T. Grasso Technical High School in Groton, pulled the white cloth from the portrait hanging on the wall. He stood quietly as the more than 50 people clapped and expressed admiration for what Sherman called “a stunningly exquisite piece of work.”

During a reception following the presentation, family friend Roberta Vincent announced that the Edward and Mary Lord Foundation had funded creation of the Jo Jo Kolodnicki, Jr. Memorial Art Scholarship to be awarded to seven Norwich Public Schools students, three local Catholic school students and one charter school student, all fourth graders, to attend the Norwich Free Academy Saturday art school.

Their works will be on display in March 2020 at Slater Memorial Museum.

“Jo Jo’s will remain part of the Norwich community in perpetuity,” Vincent said.

The drawing was placed on the second-floor hallway wall across from the winning replica painting of Lincoln, done by East Lyme artist Christopher Zhang, and across from a recently discovered bronze plaque of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The restored 1860 Norwich presidential campaign banner depicting a beardless Lincoln is displayed nearby.

Later Monday, the City Council voted unanimously on a resolution to receive the Kolodnicki gift “with appreciation” to Virginia Kolodnicki, and Nystrom read a proclamation to: “hereby thank Joseph 'Jo-Jo' Kolodnicki Jr. for his Artwork and enduring friendship he has given to the citizens of Norwich and for his dedication as a mail carrier to downtown Norwich, always with a smile and a kind word.”

c.bessette@theday.com