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not to any significant degree. I think I was mostly inspired by other artists in Chicago, who were doing things that I thought...they were older artists like Mitchell Cocoran, who was quite a nationally known artist...and he had a great influence on my whole painting. And then there was Frances Chapin, who was another painter, and Aaron Borod was another painter at that time who had a tremendous influence on my painting.
...No they weren't teaching. That's why I say that the teachers themselves...my greatest inspiration came from people outside the art school. But the difficulty I had in art school, even though I had a scholarship, was that financially it was difficult to maintain myself. I remember that I used to have to walk. We lived at 5300 South and the art school was at Adams and Michigan, so that's over... sixty blocks almost. And I very often had to walk because I had no car fare. And I didn't have any many to buy materials. So one of the instructors used to let me use his account at the art supply store, so I used to get material that way. So it was a question of hustling all the time. But it finally got so that it reached the point that I got so desparate that I had to hunt a job, so this is where I got a job as a valet for one of the local artists in Chicago by the name of Antonio Benaducci. He made a great deal of money doing work for an interior decorating firm, and he advertised at the school for a valet and cook. I had never cooked in my life, I didn't know