Seeking the Sublime in the Everyday

Fall is almost here, which means it's back to school.  Mr. Rogers once began a talk by saying, "Let's be quiet for a minute. Think back to a teacher who made a difference in your life."  My friend, Jim Carroll, was there; he said it was a sacred moment. Do you remember your teachers? One I remember is Mrs. Brilliant--that was really her name. Doesn't she look like a kid? I was a terrible math student but when she made me stay after school for extra help and I stood at the blackboard, algebra suddenly made sense to me.  I aced the next test and when she looked over my shoulder to see that I had solved the extra credit question her face absolutely lit up.   That look has stayed with me all these years.  I didn't realize it then but Mrs. Brilliant showed me what to work towards in my life--to get that much joy from my work.  Not as an algebra teacher, but as something meaningful. I wish I could let her know how much she meant to me. This year will be and is al...

In the spring of 1970 I heard about a school that has no entrance requirements, where you could just go and work in a studio and all the teachers are artists who look at your work and advise you, but you mainly work on your own.  They had classes all day and evenings.  Well, that seemed kind of sketchy, but my life was kind of sketchy at the moment so I looked into it. It was The Art Students League of New York.  I gave them a call and the lady on the phone said, “Just come on in, you can sign up and start today.” Wow. That seemed too easy, but I went to check it out. 215 West Fifty-Seventh Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue.      I walked in that beautiful door and was hit with the smell of art--oil paint and turpentine.  It’s still perfume to me. At the office, I was handed a catalog and told, “Just walk around, visit all the studios, talk to the monitors, make yourself at home.”  The monitor is the tea...

A Great Teacher  Roberto DeLamonica  1933-1995 I want to tell you about Roberto, who taught at the Art Students League. He taught printmaking, but the structure and discipline he instilled in me have stayed with me all my life and guided my work. Here is his class  handbook, which I still treasure, 20 pages of instructions and recipes;   In the file with the handbook, I found my notes for the talk I gave at Roberto's memorial at the League in 1995.  I quote from it here.  I began studying with Roberto in 1971.  I showed up for my first day of class expecting to go home that night with an etching but it didn’t work that way.  To study etching with Roberto De Lamonica you had to start at the beginning. First,  assemble your supplies. This meant searching through the most obscure reaches of New York City; automobile supply stores, religious supply stores, shops like City Chemical, Superior Ink, Continental Fe...