One artist I found particularly interesting was David Smith. He was born in 1906 in Indiana. In 1921, his family moved to Ohio. While in high school, Smith enrolled in a correspondence course in cartooning offered by the Cleveland Art School and made illustrations for his high school yearbook. After he graduated, Smith attended Ohio University for one year. During his summer vacation, he worked for an automobile factory as a riveter; he also did soldering, spot-welding, and worked a lathe. This, in my opinion, may be the first influence of his artwork (especially the Cubi pieces, being he used material requiring that type of work). Next, Smith attended Notre Dame University and took a job at a finance agency. Smith moved to NYC, planning to work at a bank. There, he met a woman (Dehner) who studied at the Art Students League. Upon her recommendation, Smith enrolled in ASL. He took evening painting and that summer, the two of them visited upstate New York, where they bought a decrepit house and barn on 86 acres of land. For the next five years, Smith studied with artists Sloan, Nicolaides, and Matulka, (the last who he took private classes with). Smith also explored New York culture, taking an interest in modern dance and jazz music, which I believe is portrayed through his abstract artwork. From October 1931 to June 1932, Smith and Dehner lived in St. Thomas, where Smith painted and assembled small constructions using pieces of wood, coral, and other found objects, creating his first stone sculptures. Then he and Dehner moved back to their upstate NY property where Smith installed a forge and an anvil in his studio. He made more constructions from wire, stone, aluminum rod, soldered metal, and easily “found” materials. He began to weld metal sculptures using an oxyacetylene torch. Smith was introduced to the works of Spanish sculptor Julio González, three of whose sculptures, including the forged iron Reclining Woman, c. 1929, Graham had acquired from the Spaniard. These are people who greatly influenced Smith’s works of arts, as did the resources available to him.