Fortunately, I had cousins who lived in Buffalo and would often go to visit them, which I loved to do because I liked Buffalo as it was a big city. Even today, the bigger the city, the better. — Paul Smith Copy Share Image
Jack Sturtzer, one of my cousins, had gone to art school and suggested that I might be interested in a private school called the Art Institute of Buffalo, and in fact that is what happened. So upon graduation in 1948,… — Paul Smith Copy Share Image
I became a bit of a teacher's pet, and it became known in the school by both faculty and students that I really excelled… — Paul Smith Copy Share
I've always been a keen cyclist, I'm very close to the world of cycling. Not just cycling really - also walking, adventures, being a… — Paul Smith Copy Share
I learned from books that I picked up. That was something that just came out of nowhere but continued to be an attraction. So… — Paul Smith Copy Share
At the end of the elementary program, I then had to move onto high school. Simultaneously, my parents moved to Attica to a suburban… — Paul Smith Copy Share
You can find inspiration in everything. If you can't, then you're not looking properly. — Paul Smith Copy Share
I think I was really naïve. I had no context to think about what I wanted to do. Each step was a next stage… — Paul Smith Copy Share
One association with the arts that I vividly remember was a magazine called Normal Instructor, a teachers' magazine, that Miss George would hold up… — Paul Smith Copy Share
The class situation [at Art Institute on Elmwood Avenue] was such that one would be very much on their own to paint or draw.… — Paul Smith Copy Share
Fortunately, I had cousins who lived in Buffalo and would often go to visit them, which I loved to do because I liked Buffalo… — Paul Smith Copy Share
I was painting furniture, learning to stencil, and explore all kinds of traditional techniques of decoration. I learned from books that I picked up. — Paul Smith Copy Share
At one point I had dreams of being in the school band, but I didn't play an instrument that qualified me, and that was… — Paul Smith Copy Share
My parents never prevented me from doing anything, but they didn't have the knowledge of the arts that Mrs. Ranger had. — Paul Smith Copy Share
Being born in '31 was during the Depression and in my earlier youth World War II took place - so it was not the… — Paul Smith Copy Share
In a social studies class I did a paper on the history of Attica, which ended up being a little book that I created. — Paul Smith Copy Share
