Artist's Statement

I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 20, 1891. When I was ten years of age, my German father had a piano sent home, and I was told to learn how to play it! My love of drawing and copying pictures, which was rare in those days, was not taken into consideration.

My brother, two years older than I, was sawing away on a violin. I knew there was no way out, so I practiced, supposedly an hour after school. I learned so quickly that my mother let me off with only a half hour of practice. My mother and a ninth grade teacher were responsible for pushing me into studying art as a profession. Meanwhile, we learned to play music well enough for my brother, who went to a conservatory, to form a dance band ...