Give us three words you would use to describe your time at the Art Institute (and why) :
Post WW2 Chaos/returning GIs/ enlightening,life career.
The professor or course that most affected your work (and why):
Miron Sokole/Painting class. I began to see color. I first “met”
Marsden Hartley at the Nelson. Sokole was a Russian with a Jewish
background and he was usually smoking a pipe. He taught us that a clean
brush is a first step and he spent a considerable time showing us a proper way to clean a brush.
Also always telling you to “push the color”, set up vibrations…
The most important thing a faculty member ever said to you and under what circumstances it was said:
Nothing specific comes to mind but there was an openness and “let us look at
this awhile” attitude. Mary Fife, Edward Laning’s wife, taught a drawing
class and she would look over your shoulder and make a check mark if she
wanted you to save a drawing for an exhibit. That was like a Papal
Blessing.
The best class or project you ever participated in:
I think the Friday Critiques were very important and we would bring in the
week’s work and have great discussions. We would have coffee breaks at a
little restaurant a few blocks North of the Art Institute and we thought we were in “The Night Cafe” with Van Gogh and Gauguin.
The course was the most challenging and why:
I think the painting classes under Sokole were the most important of my KCAI
years. I found a confidence and acceptance by my colleagues in what I was
doing.
One lesson that you learned at KCAI that still guides your career:
I am 86 years and I still feel as if my creativity is still there or I may be
completely senile and in the last stages of Alzheimers. I think I still
think critically and I am still searching and looking for the next “blank canvas” and wake up in the morning looking towards a new day.
Tell us which classmates were your best friends and how you’ve kept in touch since college:
I think I have outlived a lot of them. I think Tom Jennison is still among
us and wife, Betty and they met at the Art Institute… We used to play
bridge outside of the “auditorium” on the landing. I forget the name of
that large room but I remember that at one time there would be three life
drawing classes going at once. I also remember that there was a mother and
a daughter posing for different classes at the same time.
Your college sweetheart:
I was recently married when I enrolled in KCAI so my “college sweetheart”
happened earlier. My wife worked at Skelly Oil on the Plaza while I was at
KCAI.
Favorite hang-out on-campus:
I don’t remember any “coffee shop” but we did congregate on the “landing”
outside of Epperson Hall(?) I don’t even remember a “Coke Machine”
The craziest thing you did while at KCAI:
I think the general “wildness” associated with an art school was somewhat
tempered by the number of returning GIs. We were pretty serious and we
were a bit older than the general student population.
The funniest experience at KCAI :
I remember a new male model with a heavy accent not wearing the customary “jock-strap” , when the teacher asked him to pose.
Tell us about the moment that you truly knew that you were an
artist/designer:
I had a boyhood friend that was the class artist (third grade)and could draw
horses from any angle and I always thought that you were born an artist.
After a first semester at KCAI I realized that I had an ability and mostly I
needed to cultivate it. Subtle encouragement from teachers and colleagues
helped.
One moment here at KCAI that you will remember for the rest of your life:
Nothing monumental but the Director at the time was Wallace Rosenbauer(sp?) called me into his office and told me a lady wanted to buy a painting that I
had in an exhibit. It was of a ballet dancer seated in front of her mirror
with much tutu all about her. As she was looking into the mirror I did not
have to paint a face so that was a plus. I don’t remember the price but
it was probably $25…
The hardest lesson:
I don’t remember having any real problems and I enjoyed all of my
teachers…Not one SOB in the bunch. I think I grew up in the service
(three years)and I was ready to take on the world.
Other special memories:
We bought our art supplies from the basement art store which was run by a Max
Morris and Keith Coldsnow. Max had a family and his wife and two little
girls were often around running in the basement hallways. Years later my
nephew Jim Blackwood married Donna Morris. Sadly, Jim died recently in KC.
Donna and I have kept in touch and will continue to do that.
One last mention: One of my drawing teachers was Miron Sokole’s wife and I
think she wrote the lyrics to a popular 1940s song…”Three Widdle Fiddies”.
That is, Three Little Fishies, in a child vernacular.
