I was Head of the Printmaking Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1960 to 1970. Since then I have lived and worked mostly in Barcelona while occasionally lecturing in the United States, Europe, and South America. For the better part of twenty years I have participated in the summer workshops held at the Paper Mill/Museum in Capellades, just outside of Barcelona. I noticed for the first time that this summer’s brochure describes me as a “collaborator” of the museum. Certainly I have always taken great pleasure in my activity there so this recognition, although purely honorific, constitutes the closest institutional affiliation I’ve had since moving abroad.

Briefly, I would like to pay homage to my principal art teachers, all of whom I remember fondly and hold in the highest esteem: James Green, an excellent watercolorist, communicated the joy of painting from nature along the Mississippi River at The Principia College from which I graduated with a B.A. in 1954.

At Cranbrook Academy of Art, where I graduated with an M.F.A. in 1955, Zoltan Sepeshy was a master of egg tempera painting and a highly regarded figurative painter on the national scene. Trenchant as an art teacher, his criticism was often ironic and vaguely disconcerting. You wanted to be on your toes.

After making my first prints at Cranbrook I went to Paris the following year to study etching and engraving with Stanley William Hayter at his internationally renowned Atelier 17. Hayter simply reinvigorated the whole field of intaglio printmaking and his influence was especially strong during the post-war expansion of university printmaking departments.

Lastly – for chronological reasons only – I mention Douglass Howell who opened my eyes to the beauty of paper, to its aesthetic dimension and potential. I can only acknowledge his generosity of spirit and the debt of gratitude I owe him.