I did not know that in approximately one year I would be giving up this stability. The next few years, when I tried to establish myself as an independent artist, were probably the most difficult in my life.
One Sunday, not quite a year after my arrival in the United States, I was having lunch in a cafe. A woman sitting at the next table dropped a piece of paper. I picked it up, and we started a conversation. She was an artist and the paper that fell on the floor was an entry form for a graphics exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. She had an extra form I could fill out. It was by this coincidence that two of my woodcuts were included in a show, that only a few days earlier I knew nothing about.
To my great surprise, one of the woodcuts, Bush, received the Second Purchase Award. My delight was even greater when I learned that the juror of the exhibition was A. Hyatt Mayor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
One Sunday, not quite a year after my arrival in the United States, I was having lunch in a cafe. A woman sitting at the next table dropped a piece of paper. I picked it up, and we started a conversation. She was an artist and the paper that fell on the floor was an entry form for a graphics exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. She had an extra form I could fill out. It was by this coincidence that two of my woodcuts were included in a show, that only a few days earlier I knew nothing about.
To my great surprise, one of the woodcuts, Bush, received the Second Purchase Award. My delight was even greater when I learned that the juror of the exhibition was A. Hyatt Mayor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
A few weeks later came another pleasant surprise - my oil painting Eggs received the second prize at the Minnesota State Fair. One of the jurors for the exhibition was the prominent American artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
These events awakened my desire to become an independent artist. I thought that I had every reason to believe, after such encouragement, that I could manage to succeed as an independent artist. The next morning I knocked on the wooden partition of my supervisor's office and declared that I was quitting my job at Brown & Bigelow. People complimented me on my courage and idealism.
With determination to live as an independent artist, with my small savings, and with the clippings from the Minneapolis newspaper, I left Saint Paul for New York. It did not take me long to realize my complete innocence. In New York no one was seriously interested in my Minneapolis newspaper clippings. My meager savings soon came to an end.
These events awakened my desire to become an independent artist. I thought that I had every reason to believe, after such encouragement, that I could manage to succeed as an independent artist. The next morning I knocked on the wooden partition of my supervisor's office and declared that I was quitting my job at Brown & Bigelow. People complimented me on my courage and idealism.
With determination to live as an independent artist, with my small savings, and with the clippings from the Minneapolis newspaper, I left Saint Paul for New York. It did not take me long to realize my complete innocence. In New York no one was seriously interested in my Minneapolis newspaper clippings. My meager savings soon came to an end.
I found myself in such dire circumstances, that only my pride prevented my turning back. The large room I had rented on West 94th Street near Central Park soon proved to be beyond my means. I moved to a cheaper, unheated apartment in the East Bronx, and it was there that I tried desperately to build the foundation of my independence.
Coinciding with very difficult material hardships came an inner crisis. As soon as I had gained my independence, I did not know what to do with it. I had decided to do nothing but paint, and I felt that I did not know how to paint anymore.
My primary medium was oil, and it was through painting that I hoped to find my way out of this crisis. But looking for a new direction, more often than not, I found an old one, or found a direction that was not suitable to oil, so I tried sculpture and ceramics. When I could not find my way in sculpture and ceramics, I tried the color print.
Coinciding with very difficult material hardships came an inner crisis. As soon as I had gained my independence, I did not know what to do with it. I had decided to do nothing but paint, and I felt that I did not know how to paint anymore.
My primary medium was oil, and it was through painting that I hoped to find my way out of this crisis. But looking for a new direction, more often than not, I found an old one, or found a direction that was not suitable to oil, so I tried sculpture and ceramics. When I could not find my way in sculpture and ceramics, I tried the color print.
