Cecelia Feld
Cecelia was born in 1942 and raised in the Northeast Bronx in a middle-class Jewish home. Her father emigrated alone from Russia as a teenager around 1920, taking a long and difficult journey through Europe, South America, and Cuba before reaching the United States, where relatives awaited him in Boston. He built a life as a house painter and eventually a painting contractor, deeply committed to becoming American and learning English. Her mother, American born and a Yiddish speaker, worked as a bookkeeper after Cecelia's younger brother reached junior high. Cecelia did not grow up knowing her grandparents, most of whom remained in Russia.
Cecelia's artistic gifts were recognized in junior high, and a teacher encouraged her to apply to the High School of Music and Art, which she describes as a forerunner of today's magnet schools. She commuted from the Bronx to Manhattan beginning at age 13, majored in art, and went on to Hunter College for a BA in art with a minor in education. She met her husband Stanley on a blind date arranged by his aunt and uncle. After marrying and living in Great Neck, the couple spent time at an Air Force base in Blytheville, Arkansas, then in Boston for Stanley's specialty training before choosing to make Dallas their home in 1969.
In Dallas, Cecelia pursued her Master of Fine Arts at North Texas State University, now the University of North Texas, where she took up printmaking including etching, lithography, and silkscreen. She has worked primarily as a painter and printmaker, with photography entering her practice in later years, and she maintains a full exhibition schedule, gallery representation, and a website with a blog called Art Everyday. Stanley became an endocrinologist and started the first private endocrinology practice in Dallas in 1970. Married more than 51 years, the Felds raised two sons, have one granddaughter, and remain active travelers. Cecelia also served on the board of the AJC and treasures Dallas as a welcoming community.
Full Transcript
Cecelia 1942 the Bronx New York let's go back when you remember you were just a little girl I don't remember a whole but I do remember things like walking to school walking home for lunch without a parent holding my hand or driving me I remember street games that the kids played I remember some classmates some teachers it was it was an easygoing time what did your folks do for a living my father who came to this country without many skills he was very young was a painter a house painter he worked for a large company and then went into business for himself so my my
whole life I remember him as a we would call him me a painting contractor solo businessman had five to seven people working for him at any given time my mother was a stay-at-home mom until my younger brother went to junior high school and then she went back to work doing what was then called bookkeeping I'm not sure how quite how it would translate today some kind of personal assistant financial helper to the company owner and she did that for as long as I can remember until she retired no your grandparents tell me that's a harder story I didn't know my grandparents my father came from
Russia from Kev I only know his parents because they were left behind when he came over only know them from information from letters at the time there was there there was a number of years where they were still able to correspond my mother's parents I knew I knew my maternal grandfather a little bit but again only through pictures because he died when I was rather young so I didn't have the grandparent experience that let my thought my husband had for instance they weren't here so you're dead he came over alone yes well yes he came over alone he was preceded by a couple of his
brother none of the girls as far as we know made it to the United States they they possibly left Russia dispersed perhaps in South America he lost can't he and his brothers the surviving brothers there was one who died lost all contact with the sisters when when was this a favor coming over ah hey Kate well kind of around 1920 okay you know a little bit a little bit earlier a little bit later and he was at the time the time that he came over who I think he was about 17 18 19 something like that I World War one then yeah yeah lots going
on in Russia at that time various groups doing things to each other but he was preceded here by one too looks Morris two brothers so when he came over and he was you never saw his folks again no no because he did not go back and they did not come here right right they ever talk to you about what that was like how hard that had to be my father he was rather reticent about the whole thing even though he was a young man and I think it was in part because of the torturous route that he had a take to get here and then
he did become a citizen I mean he married my mother and she was American born but it was it was very difficult he he he talked at one point when I did an oral history of him about how how he came here and it was it was tough well I mean he had to survive any way he could by making money any way he could in order to get from Russia to a point in Europe where he could then get a boat to come some place over here and he did not go to Ellis Island he did not go through Galveston he wound up going
to South America and Cuba and then into the United States and his ultimate goal was to get to the station yeah but he had he had an uncle living in Boston aunt and uncle living in Boston who he knew about and prior to his coming here at least one of his brothers was also in Boston so it was get to Boston and then they went to New York it was a very roundabout journey for him too from the time he left home until the time he came back he came here do you know how long the time there was several years so it took him
several years yeah oh yeah you know because he stayed and in South America and cute Brazil I think maybe but I know Cuba for sure after South America for a while so when he got there he was totally alone then oh yeah oh and did he tell you how he survived what did he do for a living let's just quits the primary I mean whatever job he could get he did he tried to learn English as much as he could and and then more and more I mean it at one point he was of the generation where it was very important to become an American
and that meant learning English learning how to read and write getting a job he was lucky the jobs that he got were with people who helped him in his quest to be an American what about your mom's parents I don't know very much about them you know was we never got to have that conversation unfortunately I do know that they were from Russia rather than Germany or some other place I think her father married had one wife and then married another another woman and I think my dad couple it was my mother's parents also not a large family she had one sister and I don't
even know how they came to the United States to America what about your folks how did they meet through mutual friends the way a lot of people me that's you know they were introduced to each other and a little difficult from my mother because my mother didn't speak Russian but all the Russians spoke Yiddish and my mother grew up speaking Yiddish so that was the way they communicated and then as I said my father wanted to learn English badly so what was your neighborhood like I lived in the Northeast Bronx well I should say I was born in a an area called Park Chester which
most people who didn't have any knowledge of the Bronx no because there was a big housing development and I don't want to call it a project because that's not what it was it was a large group of apartment buildings it was owned by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and so that's that's where my father started working and because of that we were able to get an apartment in that building so I was born in that area I lived there for a few years and then we moved to another area another part of the Northeast Bronx and I lived in a neighborhood of apartment buildings small
houses here and they're mostly apartments well actually was a mix and I lived there until I was 12 and then we moved not that far away to a single-family house but it was actually four single-family houses in a row but it was a single-family house it had two floors in a walk-in basement and I live there even through my college years now talk to me about high school work ah that's that's a nice story I was supposed to go to a local high school while it's I was in junior high my artistic abilities were recognized I was not a precocious artist as a kid but
I did art and and one of the teachers in junior high suggested that I apply to the High School of Music & Art which I tell people today was the forerunner of the magnet schools of today it was a school where you had a full academic load and then you also had art classes or music classes and I majored in art and when I graduated I went to Hunter College where I got my BA in art and I minored in education so I traveled from the Bronx to Manhattan every day starting at the age of 13 on a train or two trains what did you
guys do for fun it was a commuting high school right you didn't really hang around a lot we didn't have a football team we had a basketball team there were there was a yearbook I participated in yearbook activities student council I was not an elected officer I don't remember much more than that what was it that you and your friends would do that you would die if your folks knew you were doing it we were pretty good kids I'm not sure there was a whole hot back that I knew weaving the smoke until we got to college yeah you know the big thing I mean
a bunch of girls would get on the train and go down to Greenwich Village on a Saturday and walk around and hang out but no funny business that I can remember no mention you're you're are so I want you to tell me about your talent but also was there a teacher in high school that helped really develop it they were several because we had to take a variety of courses so I don't remember any one particular I remember I remember more my college teachers and and and even more the Graduate School because I went to graduate school at the University it was North Texas State
University UNT today when I came here to get my Master of Fine Arts oh I remember those teachers more high school there was there were you know there were there was a good group of teachers and I did you know all kinds of art you did I started as a painter painting and drawing were the things that that I loved and that's I took a lot of other courses and just seemed to stick with the painting in college I went to college during the the start of abstract expressionism so some of those teachers who became very well-known for my teachers and I was also very
interested in art history so I took a lot of art history courses with you know some very well-known instructors or professors actually it wasn't until graduate school about 10 years later that I decided I wanted to do printmaking so I took printmaking classes which included itching and lithography and silkscreen that whole range of of courses and since then I've been primarily a painter and a print maker and in recent years photography has entered into the picture as well how do you sell your artwork yes I'm represented by some galleries and I work with art consultants who are essentially independent art dealers and they've placed my
work through the years in fair number of commercial spaces projects that they've worked on and in residential as well so yeah I exhibit I have a full exhibition schedule I always have had and and I sell you have a website and I have a website what's it what's your question thank you for asking it's ww Studio seven three one zero dot-com and on and on there is also a tab for a blog that I write occasionally called art everyday occasionally I like that art everyday but all right occasional exactly I do the art every day I write about it occasionally oh where did you meet
Stanley a wonderful story on blind date Stanley's aunt and uncle knew my parents they lived in the neighborhood Stanley lived not very far from me once I after I was 12 and I moved to this private house area so he also lived in a private house not very far but we didn't know each other his aunt and uncle also lived sort of in the other direction they and my parents belong to the same synagogue his parents did not his aunt thought he should date me and after a lot of you know leave me alone leave me alone he succumbed and took me out on a
date and I like to say and I think he will confirm it that it was the that was it for both of us we were very young and that was it no this was back in New York it was in New York but you went to graduate school at UNT right but I I lived in New York lived in from New York we we got married lived in Great Neck he did his medical training we were went into the Air Force Draft he was drafted into the Air Force went to Boston after that to finish his medical training his specialty training and then we moved
to Dallas so we came to Dallas in 1969 okay now you came to Dallas because of the Air Force no we chose to come to Dallas to live here when he was drafted into the Air Force we were sent to a small town in Arkansas live Ville Arkansas where I don't have to go into it but we met wonderful people off the base there was a Jewish community off the base there was a synagogue a reformed synagogue we made very good friends on the base and off then we went to Boston we had a rendus snowfall so the first year I had a three-year-old and
a newborn and it took him six hours to make a 20-hour trip home and we both said you know this is it we're not staying in the Northeast anymore so we had had a taste of southern living and then through a combination of circumstances of who knew somebody else down here at the Medical School one of his mentor's knew somebody at the medical school he was put in touch with those people they wanted him to come to the Medical School he thought he told him he thought he wants to go into private practice as it turned out he went into private practice and we stayed
ya know this was the Vietnam era yes did he have to go overseas no no we were in Blytheville from 1960 65 to 67 on the base what was that time like for you guys knowing Vietnam was there and well it was difficult because our friends on the base were going off to fight this was an Air Force Base and he was at the hospital acting actually as the chief medical officer because they needed people he was in it he was an entity that drafted out of after his first year of residency so he was an intern in internal medicine and they needed people all
over including doctors over there he did not have to go to Vietnam but it was you know it was tough because our neighbors on the base were involved in the war we were not we were kind of you know insulated to a degree being an Arkansas it had to be a big well but you know it when we moved here Dallas was a big small town right it was my husband said Stanley said you know because I didn't see Dallas until we moved here to buy our first house actually he bought the house and you know and I came and he said you're not gonna
believe it there are no trees here it's clean and later on we found the areas that had the trees but if it was new it was friendly it was small tannish I mean you talk to anybody today it is not the same city I I said that to a friend yesterday at Northpark we were walking through we had la friends visiting I said you know there was a time when I could walk through North Park and maybe meet five people that I know on a weekend right now you know it's very different so it was welcoming you could you could volunteer and anybody would say
yes come and do something whatever you wanted wherever you wanted to help out it was it was a good place to come to yes and what in what type of doctor is Stanley he's a an endocrinologist retired he started the first endocrinology practice in Dallas in 1970 they were endocrinologist at the medical school but nobody in private practice so he started with them became a very big endocrinology practice right here in Dallas and is still is still ongoing somehow without him to some degree there have very years when I was on the board of the AJC not a whole lot lately happiest time in your
life it's been a good life I have no complaints you know we might Lou been married 51 years we have two adult sons one granddaughter yeah it could have kicked each son in the butt more than once like any parent but but it was it was a there were good times growing doing with the kids growing up with the kids you know being able to do my own work supporting my husband supported me I supported him every stage was a good one for us it really was and now he's retired I'm still I'm still working we travel we've always traveled we always we've always loved
to travel with the kids without the kids so it's good everything's good and it continues to be I mean the down moments the sadness and so you know losing family but now in your lifetime there's been so many advancements in technology maybe it's from the medical field or something else that you can think of but was there something that it's come along in your lifetime that you went wow we ever get along without that which I sometimes wish we could get along without maybe the cell phone everything you know there's that moment of panic when you know you've left it behind and you have to
go out for an hour somewhere and you know so I got you know it's easy to say I mean I remember the time when we did not have a television set so I can't say that which some people can my husband can he's a little bit older than I am computers cell phones that's sort of thank you yeah you remember the big ones of everything and then the small ones you think about how you were raised in the Bronx compared to how your kids were basically raised and down right oh they were yeah yeah there were three years and ten months when we came here
was there any glaring differences like you know you tell him how hard you had I don't think I've ever said that because I was raised and pretty much a solid but what I think then maybe not today was a middle-class life we were not poor we were not wealthy we as far as I know we never wanted for anything it was maybe lower middle class but glaring differences in the freedom that you know even my children had to go and do you know versus today I think for you know for valid and maybe not so such valid reasons parents are very overprotective today and the
kids seem to be much more scheduled my kids were scheduled they participated in sports and activities and after school but it seems today that there's not a half hour a free time and my kids even though I mean one is almost fifty one is 46 I'm trying to remember back when make you know when they they didn't have handheld devices they weren't distracted every minute of the time they'll tell you they watch cartoons on Saturday morning I better be careful an iPad but but the you know the lack of freedom maybe that I had certainly a world war two you were a baby yeah did
it affect your family at all though no well I hear stories about rationing and coupon books we had we had my parents had one car and the mother was learning to drive and then I get the story the war interrupted that I guess because she they didn't have gas and so she couldn't do extra driving that's the only thing I can think of and then she never got back to it so she never drove yeah now in your lifetime you've lived through so many momentous occasions you know you live through the Vietnam War era of course the Kennedy assassination something good the moon landing for
the first time sixty I think of a good thing 9/11 is there something that really stood out that affected you that you go gosh I know exactly where I was the moment it happened probably the Kennedy well I know where I was for 9/11 but that was very recent Kennedy assassination I know exactly where I was because I wasn't in Dallas then right yeah we were I was teaching first grade in what happened that day and we just got a message over the loudspeaker pleased I mean I can't remember what it was but it had something to do with will need to talk to the
teachers in a little while because it was a time when we didn't have cell phones we didn't have TVs in the classroom we don't have computers nobody knew anything until something was said later on yeah you and Stanley have the two sons right one granddaughter what advice does grandma have for the next generation or the next generation i I think succinctly just keep an open mind and be all that you can be explore experiment take risks don't hold back pretty much great shot reach out - are we finished you