Finding My Life in Segments
by Ray Maloney

Finding Art
In 1955, I was in the army and stationed for a year about 250 miles north of Tokyo. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was deeply affected by my Japanese experience--it's culture, art, natural beauty. Nearly 20 years later, while I was working as a lawyer at BBDO Advertising in New York, I took my first steps as a tentative artist at evening classes in Japanese watercolor painting.

I completed only a few paintings over many years. For me, each Japanese watercolor required methodical preparation and practice. I made black ink by grinding a hard carbon stick in a small, flat rectangular dish and then practiced each stroke of the brush before putting the brush and ink to the rice paper.

Finding Love and The Art Barge
From the late 1970s after my first foray into painting with Japanese watercolors, until the late 1980s, I did not paint at all. The years were not empty, however. I fell in love and married, and Toni and I bought a home together on Eastern Long Island. Southampton has a blue-chip art pedigree dating back to the early 1900's when William Merritt Chase founded The Art School in the Shinnecock Hills, now called The Art Village. The Hamptons natural scenery and soft, diffused light inspired artists including Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, William de Koning, Fairfield Porter, Roy Lichtenstein and Larry Rivers. Finally, I was inspired as well. For several summers I enrolled in a series of Saturday painting classes at Southampton College, the Parish Art Museum and Guild Hall. Most times we painted from life on location in the hot summer sun.

A few years later I started taking weekday classes at The Victor D'Amico Institute of Art (The Art Barge) in Amagansett. This dramatically increased my experimentation and productivity.

Finding the World with Dotti and Fred
Our good friends Dotti Donaldson and Fred Vanderwerven are premier world travelers and every 2 years or so we travel with them on well-orchestrated cruises or road trips. Their tourmanship has dramatically expanded the diversity of my subject matter, exposing me for the first time to New Mexico, Scotland, Turkey and Greece. Fred is an accomplished photographer, and I often stand with him shoulder to shoulder shooting the same scene with my own camera.

Finding Clay and Greenwich House Pottery
In 1999, while taking a summer class at The Art Barge, Michael Rosch (my instructor for 2 weeks) suggested that I might try sculpture because he felt I visualized well in three-dimensions. I sculpted a live model in red clay and was pleased with the outcome.

Back in New York City in the fall, I enrolled in a class at Greenwich House Pottery, and most of my clay work has been sculptured and fired there. Greenwich House Pottery has been a non-profit community art center in the Village since 1909. In its founding days, the Pottery sought to teach immigrants a marketable skill, following the tenets of the Arts and Crafts movement.

I sculpt mostly from live models, who are paid by the Pottery to hold poses for 2 hours a day, one-day a week for 6 weeks. When time allows, I sculpt "quick studies" in about an hour.

Finding the Salmagundi Club
One of my proudest moments was being accepted into the 130-year old Salmagundi Club in New York City as an artist member, a catalytic event for me in transitioning from being a full-time lawyer to full-time artist.

Finding Today
Health, family, friends, art. Life is good.