In Nina’s Studio, Sculpture Lab
The building was in an industrial part of Port Washington on the edge of Manhassett Bay, a non-descript, cinder block, flat roofed building with alley ways between adjacent buildings on both sides. Inside a surprising amount of natural light came through steel framed 16 panel windows that opened by tilting inward slightly for ventilation.
For most of its life it had been a print shop. When advised by all the men in her orbit to absolutely NOT buy a building - especially this one, she not only purchased it but had plans to expand the front to include a gallery.
The money to purchase the building had come from the sale of stocks she had purchased against the counsel of the same men. She took money from teaching painting and selling real estate and bought Xerox near the bottom of what came to be known as ‘the Kennedy slide of 1962’. According to the counsel she received ‘you couldn’t give away that stock’. Nina had her own way with such things… one might say she was a contrarian. And a feminist. Both of which pissed off a lot of men something awful.
Half the floor in the building was dirt, the heat was questionable and the bathroom was… let’s just say not exactly up to code. She gradually renovated, added the gallery, built out a shop area where she could both teach and carry on her own work.
Positioning a block of marble
By 16 I was becoming fairly handy and helped with a variety of things from electrical work to moving stone. Nothing was on pallets, neither of us even knew what a pallet jack was. We moved 800 lb blocks of Belgian black marble by wedging them up with a long pinch bar and slipping pipes underneath. Then with body weight and lots of leaning and pushing we’d roll them on the pipes. Years later I’d see riggers move heavy machinery the same way but I can’t say where Nina picked up this trick.
Eventually Irving, a neighboring business owner who was a naval architect looked on in horror and explained the need for an overhead hoist. Within weeks, his man and I were gradually lifting a 30’ long steel I-beam over the work stations by moving back and forth from the roof to the inside as we gradually lifted it to the ceiling. Previously we had laid a thick strip of steel on the length of the beam and drilled holes through both the strip and the beam in a way where they’d all line up with the strip on the roof and the beam on the ceiling. Once both were positioned we drilled through the roof and ceiling, passed long bolts through the strip/roof/ceiling & I beam and bolted it all secure. All tightened up, we tarred the hell out of it on the roof side (in 30 years it never leaked).
Irv brought a trolley that rode the length of the I beam carrying a 1/2 ton hoist. The finished system made lifting and moving stone a breeze.
The learned men in Nina’s life said ‘you can’t do that’, ‘you’ll kill yourself’, ‘the roof will collapse’. She threw them all out. In the midst of all the conventional wisdom I was becoming a bit of a contrarian myself. Nina and Irv fell in love.