Jerome David S. expressed interest in the dramatics as well as tropical fish.

I was always a precocious reader, my mother was a teacher who taught me to read before I even started school.   In the 3rd grade, after a librarian refused to let me check out a book (I believe it was on witchcraft) my mother insisted that the public library issue me an adult library card.  In retrospect, mother thinks that this may have been a mistake.  I was reading all of the Tennessee Williams plays when I was too young to really know what was going on.  All I knew was that Blanche Du Bois was just wonderful.  I read The Bell Jar, which was leant to me by my high school age babysitter.  Probably someone who still requires a babysitter, shouldn't be reading that yet.

I know I'm not alone with my obsession for anything Salinger.  Like anyone who ever read Catcher in the Rye (is there anyone who hasn't?) it was a life changing experience.   Our neighbor and former high school teacher gave me his copy to read, I think I must have been 9 or 10 at the time.   I read the entire book in one sitting, I could not put it down.  I've probably read it at least once a year since then, partly because it is so familiar to me, and comforting for that very reason.


When J.D. Salinger died in January, I read an article in the NY Times that had some information about him that I hadn't already read somewhere else. One of those wonderful tidbits was that while attending McBurney School on the Upper West Side, he told the admissions office his interests were dramatics and tropical fish.  I jotted that bit of info in my journal which ended up inspiring this painting.   As a rule, I don't usually like to paint famous people but for whatever reason, I felt compelled to paint him.