Liberatore at Large: Shrinky Dink autobiography tells storybook life of Russian prince in Inverness

If certain historic events had turned out differently - the Bolshevik Revolution, for instance - Andrew Romanoff, a distinguished if unconventional Inverness artist, could have been the emperor of Russia.

Admittedly, that sounds more than a little implausible, but stranger things have happened. And it isn't that hard to picture this dignified, remarkably youthful, mustachioed octogenarian - regal even in blue jeans and a fleece vest, an ever-present scarf worn dashingly around his neck - as a royal personage, even a Russian czar.

Given a choice, there are probably some people who would prefer him over Vladimir Putin, but that's neither here nor there.

Romanoff, who celebrated his 84th birthday Sunday, is the grandnephew of Russia's last czar, the ill-fated Nicholas II, who was executed in 1918 by the Bolsheviks along with his wife, Alexandra, and their children.

The rest of the Romanoff family was rescued from Russia by King George V of England, who invited them to live in a 23-room "cottage" on the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Although he's of royal Russian blood, Andrew was born in 1923 in London and spent an idyllic, if oddly insular, childhood behind the castle gates.

"It was a strange atmosphere," he recalls over lunch in the sunny kitchen of the 1906 Victorian in Inverness where he lives with his wife, the artist Inez Storer. "I didn't know who the hell I was."

In a new autobiography, "The Boy Who Would Be Tsar: The Art of Prince Andrew Romanoff," he paints a pretty picture of his boyhood.

"The Windsor grounds made for a fantastic playground, with vast lawns, curving paths along the River Thames, fish ponds, polo fields, greenhouses full of exotic plants," he writes.

The book is an enchanting volume illustrated with Romanoff's whimsical folk art, miniature drawings done in a medium originally intended as a children's toy, a material called "Shrinky Dinks." He paints on plastic sheets that shrink when baked in an oven.

Earlier this month, he was feted at a reception at Gallery 16 in San Francisco, where his book, his drawings and paintings will be on exhibit through Feb. 24. Published by Urban Digital Color, the book is available through www.gallery16.com

"We had people calling us all week before the opening, saying, 'Oh, what a great story. Is it actually true?'" says Vanessa Blaikie, assistant gallery director. "I told them, 'Absolutely, the whole thing.' It's just so fantastical to imagine that this is somebody's life."

One of those people whom everyone in West Marin, it seems, has something nice to say about, Romanoff and his wife have lived for four decades in their wood-shingled, three-story, century-old home at the end of a verdant lane.

As his book makes clear, he settled there at the end of a rather remarkable journey.

Educated at the military Imperial Service College, he served in the British Navy during World War II. After the war, he worked briefly on a farm in Kent, "the garden of England," before sailing to the United States in 1949 aboard a freighter with some other thoroughbreds - horses bound for the Kentucky Derby.

In 1970, the height of Marin's hippie migration, he came to Inverness to work as a carpenter, building houses with a Russian cousin.

But more people know him for a more countercultural venture: as the owner of a West Marin company that manufactured jewelry and "smoking paraphernalia."

"People get absorbed in the preposterous nature of his story, the arc of his life," says Gallery 16 owner Griff Williams, an old friend who encouraged him to write the book. "And it is an amazing tale. You don't go from being royalty to selling hash pipes in Bolinas and have people believe it."

But, in all the amazement over Romanoff's background, it's easy to overlook the captivating quality of his "outsider art," a term used to describe so-called naive artists who work on the margins of the mainstream art world, often using unusual materials and techniques. To the best of anyone's knowledge, there is no one else, save perhaps a generation of school kids, creating art with Shrinky Dinks.

"His work is an object lesson for young artists," Williams says. "He's so true to himself. He's so willing to let people in on even the most embarrassing moments of his life.

"We have one piece in our show, for example, that's called, 'A Romantic Way to Spend an Evening.' It's an image of a guy, whom you presume to be Andrew, digging through the trash for Viagra. And then there's this little annotation on the bottom of the drawing that says, 'Later that evening, he found one in the bottom of his drawer.'"

An American citizen since 1956, Romanoff dropped his royal title, His Serene Highness Andrew Romanoff, when he came to the United States. Good thing. It isn't the kind of moniker that would go over very well at the Old Western Saloon on a Saturday night.

But ask anyone in town who knows him, and they'll tell you that he's a prince of a man. Quiet, modest to the point of seeming shy, he speaks in an indistinguishable accent that comes from growing up in London, speaking only Russian at home and then moving to one of the more hip outposts in America.

He is a distant relative of Prince Charles, but he was in Hawaii when Charles visited West Marin last year, so the two didn't meet. Romanoff doesn't act as if he missed anything.

"We have royalty in our neighborhood, but he doesn't act in any way like royalty," says Steve Costa, owner of Point Reyes Books, where Romanoff will appear for a reading at 5 p.m. Feb. 11. "Andrew is such a down-to-earth fellow. He has this presence about him that's pretty wonderful."

While he has led a storybook life, it is not without its tragedies. In 1940, when he was 16 and away at school, his mother, a stylish 53-year-old beauty with green eyes, alabaster skin and red hair, was killed when a Nazi bomb exploded near her family's home. She was crushed when a ceiling beam fell on her.

In his book, Romanoff includes a drawing titled, "My Mother's Death," showing him praying over her coffin.

Perhaps even more emotionally devastating, his first wife, Kathleen, unexpectedly died in 1967 from a virulent flu virus. She was just 33, leaving him a widower with two small sons.

"You've never really gotten over that, have you, Andrew?" his wife asks him compassionately.

"No," he agrees, casting his eyes down, "I never have."

When he and his boys moved into Storer's big Inverness house, he also brought with him a 22-year-old baby-sitter, a dog and a rat. She already had four young children by a previous marriage to former county supervisor Tom Storer.

Sitting over lunch at their dining room table, they look back fondly, if realistically, on those early days of their extended family, a kind of "Cheaper by the Dozen" scenario that wasn't always as comedic and romantic as the movie.

"We were the Brady Bunch," Romanoff says of their instant brood of six kids, ages 6, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15. "Luckily, Inez had this beautiful house with 14 rooms."

"I think that's how we survived," she chimes in. "It was an experience in living. We did it, but it was pretty hard. If you thought about it, you wouldn't do it. But somehow we survived."

After three decades together, they remain a handsome couple, admired in the community as an example of a successful marriage and artistic partnership.

She was already an established artist when she encouraged him to express himself through his drawings, despite his lack of training.

"I owe it all to her," he says.

And, over the years, his fanciful pieces have become more than just a hobby, a curiosity, a novelty.

"People love his work," says Bolinas artist Vickisa Feinberg, publicist for Gallery Route One in Point Reyes Station, where Romanoff's drawings will be on display in the gallery annex from Feb. 9 through March 18.

"His work is very much in demand," she says. "I think it's because his art is extremely entertaining, reflecting his youthful take on life.

"We could all learn a lot from Andrew Romanoff. 'Emulate Andrew' - that's my new motto."

Royal reading

Andrew Romanoff will read from his book, The Boy Who Would Be Tsar: The Art of Prince Andrew Romanoff, at 5 p.m. Feb. 11 at Point Reyes Books, at 11315 State Route 1 in Point Reyes Station. For more information, call 663-1542. 

Paul Liberatore

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