History
My first encounter with the actual approach to art was at home. There my father did drawings and designs for his leather purses and letter folders. At 12, I was already drawing and painting. By the age of 14, I was painting with oil. I frequented the art museum. I admired Titan, his technique. I started to use glazes just as he did.
In the Marine Corp during WW2, sketches and paintings were of real life experience. But changes in my thoughts about the meaning and values of painting developed at Wayne State University in 1944. I was exposed to the many approaches to art and paintings, especially European.
Then at Cranbrook Academy in 1948, I attended Zoltan Sepeshy’s art sessions. Enlightening discussions on why be a painter, what a painting can express, and how a painting could say it! These thought provoking ideas set the stage for abstract art around 1950. Change now became the major concern. Why change? Well, the whole of society was changing.
Change what for what? Was my first thought.
In a studio with four other painters painting became a mixed bag. They continued using mainly subject matter. I meanwhile came to realize that color and motifs were valid as expression. I still find Titans figures subdued motifs so interesting where expression is shown solely with color and its various realizations.
Painting has evolved to create a visual experience not a message.
