I became a bit of a teacher's pet, and it became known in the school by both faculty and students that I really excelled in the arts. So that recognition I credit for my growing interest in art that continued to evolve later on.

Jack Sturtzer, one of my cousins, had gone to art school and suggested that I might be interested in a private school called the Art Institute of Buffalo, and in fact that is what happened. So upon graduation in 1948, I then went to stay with my cousins on Seventeenth Street and enrolled in the program at the Art Institute on Elmwood Avenue.

When life closes a door, God opens a window.

I was always making things. I made model airplanes and did a number of hands-on activities. I liked creating in some form or another, not realizing what it was all about.

There's always an important person who helps support your interests and encourages you.

Charles Burchfield was exceptional. As such an accomplished artist, he had limited previous association with academia and teaching.

I was engaged in all the required courses of math and geometry, but the area that I blossomed in was the art program.