I had very good influence very early.  A graduate of South High School (1960), my art teacher was Moses Pearl who was a very positive influence.  He was graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, was an accomplished watercolor painter, and his paintings of the city of Cleveland made me appreciate our interesting industrial landscape. 

Link to Moses Pearl

 

At the Cleveland Institute of Art I also had some very good teachers.  In particular I note the foundation courses with Kenneth Bates, John Paul Miller and Edwin Mieczkowski.

 

Things got very interesting after I graduated in 1970. 

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The New Gallery was founded in 1968 by Marjorie Talalay and Nina Castelli Sundell.  Through Marjorie and Nina I met Jaime Davidovich and Judith Henry, two artists who were not associated with the Cleveland Institute of Art.  Later Jaime and I shared a studio on Buckeye road in the Hungarian neighborhood.  Jaime found the building.  In the front, on the street was a frame shop, and in the back was the building where they made the frames.  It was for rent for $100/mo so Jaime and I split it and we each had enormous studios.  Jaime did his tape and video pieces downstairs while I arranged all my offset prints into  installation works.

Through Jaime I became associated with the group E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology).  There were several artis working with technology including, Athena Tacha,

6 Artists, Akron Art Institute: 6 Artists: Briedel, Davidovich, Eubel, (craig) Lucas, (john) Pearson, (Athena) Tacha (spear), 1972  Ellen Johnson  (Joe Briedel?)

http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/craig_lucas.html

http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/atacha/index.html

 

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