Layton School of Fine Art

Coming back from California with my sister Betty on the train, was exciting but now what did I want to do? Mr. Muellenbach, my High School Counselor had suggested, many years ago that I might like to go to Layton School of Fine Art in Milwaukee. Well, here I was again at crossroads. So when we took Betty down to Milwaukee, she was already enrolled at the Milwaukee Cosmetology School, we stopped off at Layton to see what would be needed.

Layton had a set of requirements for our entrance portfolio and I did have some of what was required but had some work to complete if I wanted to do this. While in California I had a sketch book that I would haul around and sketch my friends, people at the beach, etc. I really didn’t want to give up any of my friends pictures but I did give them the sketch that I had done of my boyfriend. (I figured that I could always re-sketch him at a later time.)

Because I had been in the work force for a few years, most of the students were younger than I. Only the G.I.s were older. One of the students, Cynthia and I got to be really good friends.

Layton was in a four-story, grey, cement building on Prospect Avenue. The Fine Arts department was on the top floor. On the bottom floor was the commercial art department. The two floors in-between are where our classes were. The East side of all the rooms had large glass windows looking out at Lake Michigan. All the hallways were on the other side of the building. It was an very open building with lots of glass.

Cynthia and I like to wander the floors in our spare time. Cynthia was drawn to the top floor and I to the lower floor. To watch a guy painting a picture of a car or a faucet that is airbrushed to the point of looking like a photo…was exciting. Even watching them making clay models of hardware and fixtures that would later be made with steel or brass really excited me.


Our real life drawing class was interesting. I had never sketched or drawn from a posed nude. So this took some getting used to. The first few weeks in that class, everyone just stuck to what they were doing and no one was looking around at other people’s work. As soon people start to get comfortable, they got up and went around the room to see how someone else was doing. It was interesting to note the Breast-men or the Leg-men. Which ever they were was the part of their charcoal drawing that was perfect. There were even head-men who did great portraits. There was one guy in our class that always chose a back view of our model. He did this all year long.

I remember in sculpting class the first project was a head. The teacher would come along and judge our work. Those who got an A (or close) were allowed to cast it in plaster. Mine got the axe. The teacher would jam his sculpting tool into our clay model and it was ruined. So I didn’t get an A on my first project.

Then we had to take clay and create something from an abstract word. My word was compression. We made a small model of what we had in mind and then proportionally enlarged it a certain percentage in firing clay. This one I got to fire and still have it. My children cut their teeth on it.

We had to learn the names of all the bones in the body along with the names of the muscles groups. That test was very interesting but it was because our next project was a torso. We started by to doing drawings from all angles of the nude. Then construct her in clay. When I got mine finished, again with the sculpting tool, my instructor came by and told me to take some of her tummy off and lift the breasts. I did some self study and I got an A on that one. I was able to cast the torso but my sister didn’t want it in our apartment. We joked about putting a lampshade on it. I still have it after all these years.

I learned a lot about color and what they have to say to each other. Some of it even applies to life. A color will look differently depending on what it is placed next to. I find that very interesting and perhaps the entrance point of another story on relationships?

Cynthia found out that at the Jewish Center next door, we could sign up for fencing classes given on our lunch hour. We did. This was so much fun. I don’t remember the words that we were to use but the body position is still in my head. I don’t think I could defend myself in that manner today but it was a fun thing to learn.

Some of the girls at Layton had started a Sorority. Cynthia and I decided to join. We were required to do one thing as a pledge project. The one that we got assigned was to interview bartenders and find out what the favorite mixed drink was in Milwaukee. We set out to do this and when we were almost done, I told Cynthia that I was going to order a drink for us, just follow along. I was old enough but she wasn’t. She was the taller of the two of us.

We ordered the drink in the Elbow Room, a small bar just off the river in downtown Milwaukee. We mentioned that we were students at Layton, while we were talking to the bartender. He asked if we could do something with “that” wall. Cynthia looked at it and said, “Sure, what do you want?” He didn’t know so we asked if he would like sailboats all over it. He agreed. We decided to do it on Saturday.

By this time, Betty and I had moved into a larger set of rooms with a couple of girls that we had met at the apartment house on Prospect Avenue. Slim worked for the Telephone Company and Rosemary worked for Decca Records in the 3rd ward.

Cynthia and I told the girls about our project as gathered up pots of paints and headed for the bar. The painting was coming along really well, when my roommates arrived. Rosemary saw a piano in the corner and headed for that. Slim saw a set of drums and headed for that. Betty went over to be with them and sing.

We were drinking along with painting and it amazed me that it turned out as well as it did.

I remember putting some of the paint pots in my coat pocket when it was time to leave. I also remember going around a parking meter a couple of times and falling down, breaking a paint pot in my coat but it didn’t seem to matter as it was all part of the fun.

When we got back to the apartment, I couldn’t find my wallet. I told Betty that I thought I left it in the bathroom at the bar when we were cleaning up. The part that upset me the most was that I had left “Lee” at the bar. Betty told me that she had a date that evening and would go back to get him for me.

Life is one experience after another. Somewhere under some old paint on a wall, somewhere in Milwaukee is a painting that we did of sailboats. Aren’t memories great!