|
Roxane Gilbert: Biography
Our first cat was named Tiki. She was a petite seal-point Siamese that our family adopted when I started high school in Florida. After moving to New York to study at the Art Students League, I innocently offered to care for a sweet, untrained young Samoyed that an actress neighbor left behind when she moved to London. Willem had a crush on an Afghan puppy that we used to see on our walks along West End Avenue, and he loved chasing squirrels in Riverside Park. The goofy guy grew on me.
The actress never returned to New York, and California was in my restless sights, so reluctantly I found a home for Willem on a farm in the Adirondacks. His nearest neighbors all had big white Newfoundland dogs for him to play with, nine pups from one litter plus the mom, so even though it was hard to leave him behind, I knew he would be happy.
Once I settled into an apartment in San Francisco, I got a bluepoint Siamese kitten, who kept me up all night as she rampaged. A couple of years later I got a tabby-Siamese mix. The two cats acquired the nicknames Mario and A.J. because of the great fun they had racing each other up and down down the long hall in the Victorian flat I shared with another student.
Years later, long after I graduated with a degree in printmaking from an art college in Oakland, I worked as an assistant to Lowell Herrero. Although I had studied oil painting in New York, I learned alot from Lowell about color, composition and detail in the four years that I worked for him. I am grateful that Lowell was a supportive teacher and astute critic.
| 
