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New York. This application proved to be a turning-point in the young artist's life. He won the scholarship and came to New York in the fall of 1955.

When I first came to New York, I lived for a while in a small furnished room on West 59th Street. Directly across the street, the New York Coliseum area was under demolition. I remember once sitting on my front stoop eating a sandwich. The demolition across the street was going on at a furious pace, and the air was full of dust. As I sat there, I watched the sandwich in my hand change from white to dull gray as the dust settled.

After graduating from the Art Students League, Rosenquist continued painting and working on his own. He supported himself during this period with a variety of jobs. At times he worked as a chauffeur, a butler, and a billboard painter. Although he lived in New York, he made occasional trips back to Minnesota and North Dakota.

On one of these trips, Rosenquist helped with the spring plowing on his uncle's farm-five hundred acres of good farm land in western Minnesota.

We got up early in the morning-about 5 o'clock, which I wasn't used to-and ate a huge breakfast. Four cups of coffee, waffles, and about three big scoops of ice cream. My uncle, who was something of an alcoholic, supplemented his breakfast with whiskey. Then we went out-it was still dark-oiled up the plows, gassed up the tractors, and got the rigs ready. This took about two or three hours, so we went back into the house for another breakfast.

By now, it was about 8 o'clock in the morning, and the work with the plows really put an edge on our appetites. Ham, three or four eggs, stacks of buttered toast, and steaming hot cups of coffee-plus more whiskey for my uncle-and we were ready to go back to work. We went out onto the field with the three plows and ripped furrows, bouncing and bucking across the land until noon. We stopped for lunch back at the house, and this time we really ate.

After lunch, we gassed up the tractors, checked the rigs, and the three plows went out again. We didn't get back till 6 that night. I figured that this was just about the longest day I had ever known. I was tired. But, after another huge meal, we went out and started to plow some more.