The Stove In My Studio On Broome Street

About this print: Cooking for himself was new to the artist and he tried to keep a sense of humor about it. A “Think Happy” sign hangs over the stove. He had made the sign in his studio at Pratt graduate school as a reminder to not get discouraged. Whenever he felt a bit down he would add another bright, cheerful color. This sign hangs in his studio to this day. A Jules Feiffer cartoon is taped to the wall; a sardonically humorous depiction of the outcome of two men dueling over a woman.

About the Broome Street Series: In 1966, fresh out of graduate school, the artist moved to his first real working studio in an industrial loft building at 389 Broome Street in New York City. After living on the second floor for a year, he then moved up to the third floor. Make-shift living in an industrial loft space was a new and fascinating experience and his immediate interior environment became the subject matter for much of his artwork during this period. Paintings done in and about his studio environment were shown in his first major New York exhibition at the Martha Jackson Gallery in 1968. The prints in this series were based on those early paintings and were made by the artist shortly after he moved to his studio at 130 Greene Street.