Man on Rust Ground (1963)

12x16 pastel 

Man on Rust Ground

My father worked an 18-hour day. He left early to catch the train to his advertising company in New York. We waited for him for dinner and often discussed our day's adventures. He was deeply involved in our lives and always wanted to hear every detail about the subjects we were studying, the after-school extracurricular activities we participated in, and our friends. Our childhood was very different than his, but like his parents, he took education very seriously.

The ground of this pastel is very different from many of his other works. My father was feeling the stress of his growing advertising company, raising a family, and having little time for his art. 

According to my mother (1963), she was pushing him to pursue his dreams and become a full-time artist. As he said, the seed was planted, but he was not ready to live the life of a starving artist. He produced a small series of nine etchings from 1960 to 1965 and added learning lithography techniques with Burr Miller and Sons.

With my mother as his agent and his talent, we never starved.