An Artful Education

My mentor's tome and my greatest influence

It was the 1950s. Zurich. During my early school years, I simultaneously attended the Konservatorium Musikschule to study classical piano. I was pretty good (playing Rachmaninoff at age 12), but when it came down to it, I just wasn't ready to take the stage. Five years of my parents' hopes and dreams down the drain.

At 16, out of high school and with a musical career out of the question, I thought teaching home economics was my path, but pesky school counselors discouraged that direction. Strike two. Luckily there was something else I was pretty good at---and could fall back on. Drawing.

So, I applied and was accepted into the Textilfachschule. I didn't know then how amazing this opportunity was.

I was enrolled in one of the first programs specifically for fabric design artists and taught by Johannes Itten. He was the Swiss
expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus school. Needless to say, he is a legend. And to think he accepted me! I still don't know what he drank that day. It must have been good.

For four years Itten taught me and a small group, that he whittled down from 12 to three as the years progressed. We specialized in silk fabric design.

Grand times! With my classmates (that's me on the left).

We started the day at our school desks, emptying our brains, breathing deeply in and out
yoga-style, even doing gymnastics, all to keep the focus keenly on work. A little strange back then, but I guess we were ahead of our time.

Hours were spent on "fieldtrips" studying animals at the Zurich Zoo- the patterns and movements of their fur and feathers. We looked at flowers with our teacher Rosemary Mueller. We dissected every petal--each node, bud and stem. Hours were spent drawing flowers.

We copied intricate fabrics---painting their designs on paper.

Luckily I retail no evidence of our Yoga poses; just jottings and drawings.

And beyond, far beyond Zurich, we'd venture to Italy, Siena and Florence. France--Paris, of course. Germany. We looked at church vestments, windows, steeples, and all of the museums. Soaking in all the motifs, surfaces, weaves, light, and colors.

In the classroom ,we hit the books learning the history of art from ancient to modern. History of textiles. Then, hands-on how to design for the loom. And so on. After I skipped one class and Itten came down on me hard, I learned my lesson---and never stepped out of line again.

How fortunate I was! It was a grand education and opened up a world of color.