The Uffner family owned the highly respected Loring Gallery in Long Island. My husband, Eric, was one of the picture framers who did the framing of their work. One day Arthur Uffner came to our home to bring paintings for Eric to frame. He saw me working on one of my Orchard Street canvases, and wanted to see more of my work. And so began a learning for me that no one else except Arthur and Rosemary could have exposed me to. First and foremost they were highly talented in understanding good work and did not allow any deviation from it.
Ottendorfer Library
1980
I asked Eric to let me do the weekly deliveries of frames to them and every Friday I would bring a painting which I was currently working on for their inspection and for their criticism...which always came. I would argue, then think a little and ultimately agree.
Rosemary: "Hedy, those 3 women walking in the middle....get rid of 2 of them.”
Hedy: "I can’t, they asked me to put them in.”
Rosemary: "You are not selling cottage cheese, you are doing an artwork. They are over balancing that spot. They have to go.”
Arthur: "The corner of the building is off. You have to change it.”
Hedy: "I worked so hard on it, changing it would be so much work...I’ll put a truck there instead, and then nobody will know.”
Arthur: "Do you want to be known as the best primitive painter in New York.”
Hedy: "But I am not a primitive painter.”
Arthur: "Then repaint that corner.”
I carry their voices in my heart. When I was asked by them to do a city scene of my choice, I picked this area with the old library and it’s history and while I worked on it, they offered no advice. By then they had already taught me so much, and I had learned to absorb it. Our two families formed a close friendship which continues to this day.