Sometime around age 13 or 14 I got a wild hair that I wanted to be an architect. After graduating prep school I went to Ga. Tech to study architecture. My background was such that I honestly didn't know who Frank Loyd Wright was when I got there. I was on a Navy scholarship and I liked the Navy. Might have made a career of it. But there was a problem called calculus. If I'd stayed at Tech for 20 years I don't think I'd ever have gotten through it.
I bummed around working as an architectural draftsman and took a few classes at the Atlanta Art Institute. Back in the good old days there was military draft so to beat that I joined the reserves to shorten my active duty time. No wars going on so I didn't feel that I was shirking.
When I got out I went back to what I was doing but decided that being a medical illustrator was the way to go. I got accepted to the Georgia Medical College to study medical illustration there in Augusta. But it just didn't feel right to me. I talked to Joel Reeves, a teacher at the Atlanta Art Institute and that fall I entered school there to study fine art. A lot of juggling gave me credits for a bunch of design stuff from Tech and it came down to needing 2 years for a BFA.
In those days the institute was a wonderful place that allowed for a great deal of individual development. Joel Reeves was a wonderful teacher. Abstract Expressionism was the style de jour. de Kooning was king. There was a small effort in printmaking and a strong emphasis on drawing from the figure. Pollack sucked.
I had some success in those 2 years. Some in shows that I just didn't know were "above" my level.
The paintings and prints shown below are scanned from old slides and in some cases they are not true but they give an overall view of what was done in them there days.
The above painting "The Dam" about 48 x 36 oil on linen, received the 3rd purchase award at the Southeaster Annual at the Atlanta Museum of Art. The following are in the abstract vernacular. Most are based on landscape forms and smaller than 3 ft x 4ft.
I bummed around working as an architectural draftsman and took a few classes at the Atlanta Art Institute. Back in the good old days there was military draft so to beat that I joined the reserves to shorten my active duty time. No wars going on so I didn't feel that I was shirking.
When I got out I went back to what I was doing but decided that being a medical illustrator was the way to go. I got accepted to the Georgia Medical College to study medical illustration there in Augusta. But it just didn't feel right to me. I talked to Joel Reeves, a teacher at the Atlanta Art Institute and that fall I entered school there to study fine art. A lot of juggling gave me credits for a bunch of design stuff from Tech and it came down to needing 2 years for a BFA.
In those days the institute was a wonderful place that allowed for a great deal of individual development. Joel Reeves was a wonderful teacher. Abstract Expressionism was the style de jour. de Kooning was king. There was a small effort in printmaking and a strong emphasis on drawing from the figure. Pollack sucked.
I had some success in those 2 years. Some in shows that I just didn't know were "above" my level.
The paintings and prints shown below are scanned from old slides and in some cases they are not true but they give an overall view of what was done in them there days.
The above painting "The Dam" about 48 x 36 oil on linen, received the 3rd purchase award at the Southeaster Annual at the Atlanta Museum of Art. The following are in the abstract vernacular. Most are based on landscape forms and smaller than 3 ft x 4ft.
The paintings below are figure based but still abstraction.
And then there was printmaking. As I said there was a small printmaking program with a small etching press and we also did relief prints (woodcuts). The instructor was Walt Martin, a nice guy with limited abilities. At some point we had a guest instructor, Antonio Frasconi, a wood cutter with a considerable reputation as an illustrator and fine artist.
Everyone loves a Clown, aquatint, about 8" x 10"
Some kind of aquatic scene, aquatint, about 12" wide
A couple of small land form intaglio prints.
And then there was printmaking. As I said there was a small printmaking program with a small etching press and we also did relief prints (woodcuts). The instructor was Walt Martin, a nice guy with limited abilities. At some point we had a guest instructor, Antonio Frasconi, a wood cutter with a considerable reputation as an illustrator and fine artist.
Below are intaglio prints, necessarily small because of the press size and fairly trite in subject. The intimate nature of prints lends itself to smaller concepts. True at least until the printmaker/artists collaborations coming on in the 60s with Tamerind Press and other publishers.
At some point I entered a printmaking show put on by the Alabama Art Commission and ended up with a one man show of prints that traveled around my future home state.
A self portrait. aquatint and etching. probably about 10 inches wide.
Everyone loves a Clown, aquatint, about 8" x 10"
Some kind of aquatic scene, aquatint, about 12" wide
A couple of small land form intaglio prints.
Then came the woodcuts.
A self portrait, one color, about 8" x 10"
A 4 color woodcut based on land forms, about 18" x 12"
A woodcut, about 6 colors, "The Burning Bush" about 12" wide. very biblical.
A landscape woodcut, about 7 colors, about 16" wide
A color woodcut loosely based on an expressway interchange.
A self portrait, one color, about 8" x 10"
A 4 color woodcut based on land forms, about 18" x 12"
A woodcut, about 6 colors, "The Burning Bush" about 12" wide. very biblical.
A landscape woodcut, about 7 colors, about 16" wide
A color woodcut loosely based on an expressway interchange.
This is the one that made it seem like this would all be a snap. About a 6 color woodcut printed on black tissue paper(a Frasconi technique). I ran across an announcement for a show at the Associated American Artists galleries in New York City. This was an organization devoted to printmaking. It was open to international entries and they would accept 100 prints (out of the whole world, right). The above was one of the 100 prints. A few years later in NYC I dropped by the gallery and they remembered me from that show. Didn't mean much but it's nice when someone knows who you are.
So after completing the art studies, I had to pick up a couple of academic subjects; math NO CALCULUS and a foreign language, German. I considered a few graduate schools and ended up at Tulane because they gave me the best deal. So off to the big easy.
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