Mieczyslaw Gaja was born on July 16th, 1953 in the small Polish town of Lukow. Mieczyslaw became involved with wodd carving in 1975, after marrying the daughter of the famous Waclaw Suska. He is involved with the Center of Folk Sculptures in Lukow interesting and energetic in all of Poland. Mieczyslaw currently works in the meat industry. He is married with two sons. His wifeÕs name is Czeslawa and she is the one who paints all of his carvings.

Mieczyslaw carves most of his sculptures from one piece of wood, in other words most of his complete compositions are all weaved onto one piece of wood. He enjoys decorating his carvings with different sorts of vegetation and different animals and polychrome. Mieczyslaw carves reliefs and other statues on subjects including nativities, sacrament scenes, saints, and other bible scenes. He also carves other non-religious scenes.

Like all of the great Polish carvers from his area, Mieczyslaw belongs to the Establishment of Professional Folk-Artists in Lublin. He has participated and won awards in many different contests, which include seven 1st prizes and many others. Some of these contests took place in Austria, Germany, Sweden, France, and the USA. Some of his art is found in museums in Warsaw, Lublin, Torun, Lukow, and the Institute and Museum of Fantasy and Art in the USA.