My grandmother, Blanche Rose (Nathan) Hesslein hanging a painting exhibition outdoors in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Photographed by my mother Bernice (Erickson) Hesslein

The painters that have inspired me are numerous. They interwove with my life. DeKooning, Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, Duchamp, Motherwell, Kahlo, Schnabel, Krasner, Keifer and Richter fall well in that arena. Their images strong and true, hovering in my imagination. Their painterly images forever visible, keeping the light on full as the painters on the sunset.

I go back to my childhood and into the not too distant past viewing the countless paintings on the walls of our house and the painting studios of my mother and grandmother. Works by the artists of my family and others that opened my eyes to the possibility of becoming a painter.

The paintings and drawings by my mother, Bernice (Hesslein) Erickson and my grandmother, Blanche were the key to my eventual discovery of what it really is like to be a painter. I owe them everything and these pages of their photographs and exhibitions are the examples of what I grew up with, watching them paint in their studios and being inspired and they continue to inspire me.