TOM ARTHUR

YOU WERE BORN IN BOSTON, WITH ALBANIAN PARENTS; what was your childhood like?

My upbringing was pretty atypical, even for immigrant parents coming to a new place. My mother passed away when I was young. I think that the most significant aspect was the fact that culturally art didn’t exist in my early childhood. What did exist was the requirement for me to spend a lot of time by myself at home.

I had to keep myself busy – I used to draw a lot. My father was a tailor and he had this big old sewing machine that I used to take apart and turn it into other things. One of those things that I remember most fondly was turning it into kind of a sawmill using those big scissors that he had. The leather belt would turn on the treadle machine and a big staple on the belt would catch on the scissors, opening them up and letting me