My formal art school training started with the High School of Music and Art. It was a great school and I must say it was very formative for me.

In the early fifties I attended Brooklyn College for a while and got married in 1955, before getting a degree. After marriage, I studied painting with Gregorio Prestopino, and sculpture with Chaim Gross at the New School for Social Research. I took a course in portrait painting at the Art Students League and studied painting at the Brooklyn Museum Art School with Rueben Tam, the artist who influenced me most.

My first child, Frances was born in 1957, followed by Morris a year and a half later. With children in the house there was a pause in my art work until Martin, the last (born in 1966) went off to school full time (1972). Painting requires (at least for me) that pots of colors and other toxic materials lie in readiness for the next session of work. Inspiration is put to the test if you have to clean up every time, and try to re-mix the exact color.

It was during this time that I followed my other creative interest, composing classical music. All you need for material is some music paper and a pencil. Some of my compositions were performed at various recitals, and were well critiqued by Aaron Copland. However, this was my secondary love, and I sorely missed my painting.

When all my children were old enough to avoid eating little cups of cadmium red, and were safely ensconced in school I decided to continue my own career in art. I thought I might try medical Illustration and attended the first two years of Medical School on special arrangement. I discovered, however, that I would be drawing mostly graphs (very unappealing). It was then I decided to continue my pursuit of the fine arts.

During my career in the visual arts my works have been shown at The Aldrich Museum in CT, The Bronx Museum of Fine Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, The Franklin Furnace, and assorted galleries in NY.

I was interviewed on WBAI for Science Magazine. I appeared on cable TV in the Netherlands and on Manhattan Cable in NYC. For a show entitled “The Wall”. I was also interviewed on WNYC for a symposia series “Time and Space Concepts in Art”. My art was reviewed in ARTS Magazine, and assorted NY newspapers.

Upon receiving a grant from the New York State Council of the Arts, I co-edited a volume entitled Time and Space Concepts in Art, based on a series of symposia which I organized, and which book was used in an art course at Columbia University.

My husband retired in 1984, and we left NYC for Chenango Forks, NY. We bought a lovely little farm house with a huge barn. At the time of the purchase I visualized the barn (which had electrical wires, and troughs through which water must have run) as becoming my studio. I soon learned that the wires were eroded , there was no water, and there was no insulation. I tried to continue my painting from within the small house but it was not convenient for my style of painting. I took a temporary leave of absence from my connections in NYC, but I let my incentive for painting fade.

It was while browsing through a fabric store that I stumbled upon art quilting. It was as if I were struck by lightning. I loved sewing and I loved painting. The art quilt combined the two. That was all I needed. Off I went exploring this new avenue.

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