My Earliest Artworks
These first drawings are the earliest pieces of my artwork that still exist. The first is a painting of our parakeet Henry. My mother purchased him after her separation from my father in 1974. I was only 4 years old when they separated. Henry was a good bird and he lived with us for many years. I'm sure it was because of Henry that my art initially centered around birds. I loved to draw birds.
 Acrylic - 'Henry' 1976 (6 Years Old) |
A short story about Henry...
As Henry got older he started loosing his feathers and his feet became deformed. My brother and I had a theory. Microwave ovens were fairly new back in the 70's and his cage was positioned almost directly over our oven. My brother and I heard stories about these machines leaking radiation and the warning was to not stand to close. We wondered if the microwave oven was radiating Henry, so we told our mother. She told us to stop being foolish and we listened to her. Henry lived for a very long time despite his problems and we never fully understood why his body was falling apart.
Years later my brother may have solved the mystery when he was in college. During one of the physics lectures a professor showed the class a set of orange Fiesta dinnerware plates. The professor then used a Geiger counter to show the class that the plates were radioactive. He explained how the manufacturers used radioactive materials in the orange paint to prevent the color from fading. Many did not know about the dangers of radioactive materials in the 1920's. My brother said he almost fell out of his chair because we had a stack of these same plates and they used to sit on a shelf directly next to Henry's cage. He borrowed the Geiger counter from the professor after telling him about our orange Fiesta plates. As expected, the machine started making noise when my brother walked into the house and it went crazy as he walked closer to the location of the plates. Henry's cage was long gone but the plates were still there and they registered radioactive. Our mother threw them out even though the professor explained that the amount of radiation emitted could not harm a human. The only danger to a human would be ingesting a paint fleck which could cause problems later in life. But, we all think the plates emitted enough radiation to have an affect on Henry.
Love of Drawing Birds
 Crayon 1978 (7 Years Old) |
 Crayon 1978 (7 Years Old) |
Colored Pencil1978 (7 Years Old) |
"I can still remember drawing this cardinal. It was winter and I saw this little fellow while looking through our dinning room window. He was walking on the roof of a bird house in the backyard. He flew away, but I got my pencils and paper and then I drew this picture." |
A Visit to the Museum of Natural History
After the divorce of my parents things changed drastically at home. Naturally my parents were adjusting to the change, but my younger brother and I were the ones who were hit the hardest. One thing that helped us get through those years were the summer vacations to our grandparents home in Astoria, New York. My mother would send us there for most of our school summer vacation. We stayed for about 4 to 6 weeks each summer. We began making those trips soon after the divorce and they continued until my brother and I were both in our teens. Looking back, those summers in New York City were a wonderful and peaceful time in my life. Today, when the stress of life starts creeping up on me, I sit back and remember those visits... they are my happy place.
My grandparents and Aunt Annie would take my brother and I into New York City to the Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We made visits to those places every summer. These next drawings are from one of the trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Aunt Annie. I remember on this occasion how we took our time going through the bird exhibits as I made these drawings.
 Colored Pencil 1977 (7 Years Old) |
 Colored Pencil 1977 (7 Years Old) |
 Colored Pencil 1977 (7 Years Old) |
 Colored Pencil 1977 (7 Years Old) |
 Pencil 1977 (7 Years Old) |
Here I am outside the museum. Aunt Annie took this picture.
Drawing People
Although birds were my focus, I did draw other things too. Here are some portraits. The first is my grandfather, the second is Teddy (...a friend of my mother) and the third is a picture of Vincent Price that I copied from the cover of a TV Guide.
 Pencil - 'Grandpa' 1977 (7 Years Old) |
 Pencil - 'Teddy' 1977-78 (7-8 Years Old) |
Pencil - 'Vincent Price'1977-78 (7-8 Years Old) |
"I can remember my dads reaction when he saw this portrait of Vincent Price. He could not believe that I drew it. He made copies that were later shown to people he knew. I felt very good inside after seeing how proud of me he was." |
My Love of Drawing Birds Continues
Here are some more birds. You can see that I was getting better at drawing in the details. You can see this in the feathers.
 Pencil 1978 (8 Years Old) |
 Pencil 1978 (8 Years Old) |
 Pencil 1978-79 (8-9 Years Old) |
 Pencil 1978-79 (8-9 Years Old) |
 Pencil 1979 (9 Years Old) |
 Pencil 1979 (9 Years Old) |
Private Art Lessons
My parents realized I had artistic talent and they signed me up for private art lessons. My art teacher was Cathy Singer and she was located close to home. Mrs. Singer introduced me to landscapes, watercolors and hand-made crafts using paper-mache. She was a good art teacher. We usually met at her home for the lessons but she also took us on field trips. I remember one such trip to a farm that had an old barn. I have several drawings from that trip but they are badly faded and I could not produce quality scans for this webpage.
 Watercolor 1979-80 (9-10 Years Old) |
 Watercolor 1979-80 (9-10 Years Old) |
 Watercolor 1979-80 (9-10 Years Old) |
Painting in Queens, New York
My Aunt Annie loved to watch me draw. Here is a painting that I did at her apartment in Queens, New York one summer. This was my first painting of a landscape using acrylics. It was around this time in my life that I also began to take an interest in sailing ships.
My Aunt Annie and her husband (Uncle Joe) used to paint together. They painted ocean and landscape scenes. Uncle Joe, who died when I was very young, loved to paint and build model ships. I remember sitting in their living room and staring at a model ship of the 'Cutty Sark' that Uncle Joe built. It was awesome! I eventually inherited that model but it was severely damaged during the journey from New York to Connecticut. I could not fix it and sadly it one day went into the garbage. However, my mother and I have all of the original paintings they created together and some of them are shown in the Gallery. Aunt Annie and Uncle Joe were definitely an inspiration to me.
 Acrylic 1980 (10 Years Old) |
'Paier College of Art'
This was great. One day a week I was allowed to leave school early (none of the other kids got to do that) and attend special art classes at the 'Paier College of Art' in New Haven, Connecticut. I don't have any of those art projects but they were all hands on. There was a lot of sculpting and building using different materials and mediums. The skills I learned opened up new ways for me to express myself through art. Creating images on paper was no longer my limit. Below is a castle that I starting building out of cardboard shortly after my experiences at 'Paier'.
 Cardboard 1980-81 (10-11 Years Old) |