I came to the New York Studio School in 1977-78 on a scholarship from the Skowhegan Summer Program. A visit to New York City during the summer had awed and impressed me, and I was excited for this opportunity. The initial excitement about being in the big city was tempered by the reality of living there. At Skowhegan, I had shared a studio in a cow pasture with other artists, and developed my first cohesive body of work. It was powered by my immersion in the Maine landscape. 

The Studio School was unlike any other educational experience I’d had, which had been in more self-directed programs. Ideas about Abstract Expressionism and the New York school of painting became vividly real. I was thinking of Hopper with my Skowhegan paintings – now it was: every mark matters, the integrity of the whole, the gradual building up of an image with patches of color that referred to many elements of the motif… My assumptions crumbled under my feet. This alienation from my source of inspiration matched the feelings I had about the gray expanses of the city. That is one of the ironies of my experience – having it taken away helped me to identify that source later on.

Nick Carone taught my drawing class – in a large room with a skylight and tables surrounding the model at the center. It was a calming, beautiful atmosphere. Carone was a passionate and eloquent teacher. Conceptually, the class was difficult for me. At one point, I accused him of wanting me to draw like an architect because of his insistence on paying attention to the rectangle. The teacher whose spirit I most responded to was the wonderful painter George McNeil, who taught – or enthused about – art history. An attitude I could relate to.

The discipline of the atelier-style of learning at the school – going in every day to work alongside others at the same tasks, seeing lectures of so many interesting artists, historians and critics, and being critiqued by well-known art world figures – worked on me in ways that became apparent only later on. My sophistication and knowledge increased, and I had a new reference for artistic discipline. I’m sure I’m not the first to compare the New York Studio School to boot camp, but I do feel it was something to survive. Left in its wake are skills and understanding that have stood me in good stead over the years. And I do pay attention to the rectangle.