Smithsonian American Art Museum
Paul Cadmus used the classical technique of egg tempera to create satirical images of American life. He left school at fifteen to attend the National Academy of Design, then worked as a commercial illustrator while taking classes at the Art Students League.
Alexander A. Maldonado came to America from Mexico when he was ten years old. His father died in 1914, and Maldonado left school to earn some money by delivering newspapers and taking care of the milkman's horse.
Painter. Harvard graduate and onetime companion of author Ernest Hemingway, Peirce was a larger-than-life, bon vivant adventurer whose art is integrally linked with his life experiences. He created joyful, realistic paintings of family life in his home state of Maine.
Austin Mecklem or “Meck” worked for two years at a gold mine in Juneau, Alaska, to save money for art school. He studied at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts and the Art Students League in New York, and was one of the first artists to settle in the village of Woodstock, New York.
Irvin L. Trujillo, a seventh-generation New Mexican weaver, learned traditional skills as a ten-year-old boy working alongside his father, one of Chimayo's master weavers. Although Irvin earned a degree in engineering in 1984, he soon gave up that profession to continue his family's art form.
Anthony Corradetti studied at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, where his experience in ceramics had involved often lengthy processes in making works of art. When he visited the glass studio, he was struck by how quickly a finished object could appear.