Paul Smith Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Charles Burchfield would look at what you were working on and not say anything for several minutes. Then he would very sensitively respond - "Well, have you thought about?" or "Might you consider?" I respected that so much because I thought he was so sensitive to my work, and didn't want to offend me, but in the right way to encourage me.

  Paul Smith

  Say Anything, Looks, Want

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• We've got a nation of people who have one eye looking out for the next speed camera, another looking for a speed limit sign and another looking at the speedometer - which is a bit of a shame, when you only have two eyes.

  Paul Smith

  Clever, Eye, Two

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• There were neighbors that I played with and did all the things that children do. I did mow the lawn. I did help with various things that needed to be done to occupy my time.

  Paul Smith

  Children, Done, Helping

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• Jack Sturtzer, one of my cousins, had gone to art school and suggested that I might be interested in a private school called the Art Institute of Buffalo, and in fact that is what happened. So upon graduation in 1948, I then went to stay with my cousins on Seventeenth Street and enrolled in the program at the Art Institute on Elmwood Avenue.

  Paul Smith

  Art, Cousin, School

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• I was engaged in all the required courses of math and geometry, but the area that I blossomed in was the art program.

  Paul Smith

  Art, Math, Program

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• At school there were some programs in music. I did take piano lessons, and we had a piano at home. I got very interested in that.

  Paul Smith

  Home, School, Piano

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• In thinking back, not having any experience in any other elementary school, there may have been an advantage of being with different age groups to benefit from what they were learning in a more advanced capacity. With a small group like that, there was a lot of one-to-one teaching.

  Paul Smith

  Teaching, School, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• I think there were some programs but in those days art programs were kind of basic. You would do drawing and simple collage type work. But at home I was beginning to get interested in doing my own thing as well. I'm not sure what inspired this, but I became very interested in decorating things.

  Paul Smith

  Art, Home, Simple

  4 Copy quote

• I was painting furniture, learning to stencil, and explore all kinds of traditional techniques of decoration. I learned from books that I picked up.

  Paul Smith

  Book, Furniture, Technique

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• I learned from books that I picked up. That was something that just came out of nowhere but continued to be an attraction. So there was a continuum of my interest in the arts and involvement in creating that was strong enough that it later blossomed into much more.

  Paul Smith

  Art, Strong, Book

  4 Copy quote

• Upon graduation, in the yearbook I was voted "Most likely to succeed." which I know was credited to my artistic achievements.

  Paul Smith

  Yearbook, Achievement, Succeed

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• I became a bit of a teacher's pet, and it became known in the school by both faculty and students that I really excelled in the arts. So that recognition I credit for my growing interest in art that continued to evolve later on.

  Paul Smith

  Teacher, Art, School

  4 Copy quote

• It was only when I got to high school and was in the art program that my artistic talent was recognized. The art program was directed by a wonderful and a very important person in my life - Charlotte Ranger, who was referred to as Mrs. Ranger. She had been teaching in the school for many years.

  Paul Smith

  Art, Teaching, School

  4 Copy quote

• One association with the arts that I vividly remember was a magazine called Normal Instructor, a teachers' magazine, that Miss George would hold up with illustrations of great artworks like [Vincent] van Gogh and Rembrandt [van Rijn].

  Paul Smith

  Teacher, Art, Illustration

  4 Copy quote

• Being born in '31 was during the Depression and in my earlier youth World War II took place - so it was not the best of times, and yet I don't recall ever having experiences that were a burden.

  Paul Smith

  War, World, Youth

  4 Copy quote

• I developed friends in the community that were in walking distance or a bicycle ride away, so that I socialized and did a lot of things that children do in their early years.

  Paul Smith

  Children, Distance, Years

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• At the end of the elementary program, I then had to move onto high school. Simultaneously, my parents moved to Attica to a suburban area not far from the well-known Attica State Prison. Then I would take the school bus which was a very short distance away, where I was involved with a much larger community.

  Paul Smith

  Distance, Moving, School

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• Going back to the elementary school days, I was always drawing. I entered a Victory poster competition and won the top award that recognized my artistic instincts.

  Paul Smith

  School, Drawing, Awards

  5 Copy quote

• Even today, the bigger the city, the better. That's why I live in New York.

  Paul Smith

  New York, Cities, Today

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• The environment itself was culturally a vacuum, in that there was simply nothing that would inspire me in the arts. But my parents were always very supportive of anything that I explored or wanted to do.

  Paul Smith

  Art, Parent, Inspire

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• In a social studies class I did a paper on the history of Attica, which ended up being a little book that I created.

  Paul Smith

  Book, Class, Paper

  6 Copy quote

• I'm pleased to say that it [ a paper on the history of Attica] got much recognition with a 99 grade. It was shown to the Attica Historical Society, who enthusiastically responded to it and read it at one of their annual meetings resulting in an article in the local newspaper about this excellent paper being presented. As I now look back at it, I think of that as being really my first book and did indicate that I did have interest in research.

  Paul Smith

  Book, Thinking, Being Real

  4 Copy quote

• I graduated in June 1948 and then went in the fall to the art school. I stayed with my cousins on Seventeenth Street in the beginning, and later had my own apartment very near there and was able to walk to the Art Institute on Elmwood Avenue. The school had a faculty of local artists - Jeanette and Robert Blair, James Vullo who were well known in the area. It was a school that I think thrived on returning GIs, as many schools did at that time. It was a very informal program - but it was professional.

  Paul Smith

  Art, Cousin, Fall

  4 Copy quote

• The class situation [at Art Institute on Elmwood Avenue] was such that one would be very much on their own to paint or draw. The faculty was roving to give opinions or help out technically, which all the faculty did very well.

  Paul Smith

  Art, Class, Giving

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• Charles Burchfield was exceptional. As such an accomplished artist, he had limited previous association with academia and teaching.

  Paul Smith

  Teaching, Artist, Academia

  4 Copy quote

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