Interview

David: Where did you grow up?

Edmund: I grew up in New Jersey, in a small town called Roselle, and also Elizabeth. My mother owned a grocery store. She had five children and no husband. My father died when I was four.

David: Do you have any memories of your father?

Edmund: The vaguest memory of him, one or two minor incidents. That’s about all. But I have always recognized his influence on my sisters and brother.

David: They were older than you?

Edmund: Yes. I did have one younger sister, and there were five of us. Myself, a brother, and three sisters. So I grew up with a lot of girls and female energy around the house.

David: What kind of influence did your father have on your older siblings?

Edmund: Ah, I was glad that he wasn’t around. He was very autocratic and a man who wanted it his way. I always felt that my older brother and sisters were very restrained people as a result of being around him.

David: What were you like as a child?

Edmund: I felt like I was outside of it all. I was remote and aloof. I always had the feeling that I had to do something to be recognized, to make people realize I was there. I suppose at that time I was searching for a way to express myself that would work toward that end, of feeling that I’m in this world. And, I did all the things that kids did. I helped my mother in the grocery store. I ran errands. I delivered orders. I visited people on the street. I was curious about people.

David: Did you do any artwork?

Edmund: Oh yes, I’ve always been doing artwork. I was a scribbler, and a drawer, and very concerned with making things. I’ve always had a crafty nature, and liked making things with my hands. I was exposed to a limited amount of other artists work. I’m a mimic. I’m a chameleon. I grew through those qualities. I’m a Libra. They’re known to be good mimics, so the astrologers tell me.

David: How did you become an artist?

Edmund: You see, that’s a hard question to answer because it’s always been there. It was there from the beginning. I was born with these instincts, and it just oozes out of me.

David: Creating has just been something that you’ve always done.

Edmund: Yeah, exactly.

David: Was there ever a time you thought you might want to do something else, or did you always know what you wanted to do?

Edmund: Well, even when I wanted to do something else, I always did it from a creative point of view, with an artist’s eye. Whatever other things I was doing, I did with as much art as I could get into it.

David: With an aesthetic sense — is that what you mean?

Edmund: Yes, a concern for beauty, form, line, proportions, expressive artifact. Even when I got into clothes designing, that was an opportunity for me to express my artistic nature. I started very early. I had a younger sister who liked to make her own clothes, and she would often get my assistance with ideas. I have always had ideas about things, and how they should look. If I was going to build a bookcase, I invented my bookcase. I would help my sister figure out what these clothes should look like. I learned about sewing, because my mother and sisters all sewed. So those things oozed into my life as equipment that would help me express my artistic nature, and form a basis for career and livelihood.

David: And this house that we are sitting in right now…

Edmund: Expresses my tastes, my artistic development, and other experiences that have come into my life, yes.

David: And you designed this house yourself?

Edmund: Yes, I designed it.

David: You once told me that one could only become an artist if no one else can convince them not to be. What did you mean by that?

Edmund: During my early years, when I told people I wanted to be an artist, they very often said, “Oh, you’ll starve to death. Don’t be an artist, that’s a rough world to get into. You’ll just have a miserable life, because you won’t be scoring. You won’t be making any bread.” And that idea never scared me.

David: Really? It never scared you?

Edmund: No. I always believed that there was a use and a need for people with ideas and the ability to manifest them. And that has worked in my life.

David: A lot of very talented and capable people never become artists because of that social pressure. They’re so afraid that they’ll never be able to make a living, and everybody tells them that they can’t do it.

Edmund: Yes, well just today I was thinking about that very strongly. I thought, capitalism annihilates creativity because you start working for bucks, rather than just working to be an artist.

David: And it’s so odd how our society determines which art is worth money. Who decides? How much is it worth? Why? It’s the strangest process.

Edmund: Well, when people said that to me, I suppose that idea did get into my head, because I did reject the Village scene in New York — living Downtown in some coldwater flat or experiencing frustration, and doing the bohemian artist thing.

David: So you rejected that?

Edmund: I rejected that. I preferred the Uptown scene — a more commercial use of my art talent — and that’s why I got into fashion and illustration. I got a job in the display department at Macy’s and became interested in designing clothes through all of that. Because there was a chance to have a career, but not be the pure artist. Suffering and struggling did not appeal to me at that time in my life.