People are surprised to learn that I didn’t go to art school or have formal instruction as a child. I went to museums and made crafts, but that’s it. It was in 1977 after my father’s funeral that his brother told me he had taken up sculpting since retiring to Florida. My hands started to tingle and a voice in my head said “I could do that.”
I enrolled in a figure sulpture class in the now defunct Forest Hills Adult System. I remember talking to a classmate and then turning around, shocked to see the male model standing naked in the middle of the classroom. I have since learned that models are nude, not naked.
The first piece I completed was good one, and I had it cast. I showed it at the first exhibition of the Alliance of Queens Artists. But when I brought it to the WomanArt Gallery on 57th Street and they offered me a contract, I thought I would float right up to heaven! You can see this first piece here, it’s called “Davidoff.” He’s been standing around my homes for almost 40 years looking good.