A Light on Arrow Street

I dropped out of high school at sixteen, moved to the coast of Maine, and got a job waiting tables. I wanted to be a sculptor, so I started carving plaster reliefs in my room at the boarding house.

At the end of that summer I moved to the Boston/Cambridge area.

Late one night, walking home from Grolier’s Bookshop near Harvard Square, we took a shortcut onto Arrow Street.

I saw a light burning in a basement window.

Peering inside, I found Robin Binning working on a huge sculpture.

I started banging on the window until he came upstairs and opened the door.

“I want to be a sculptor,” I told him.

I asked if I could apprentice with him.

“NO.”

He slammed the door in my face.

So I banged on the window again — harder this time.

He opened the door once more and said:

“If you want to work with me, enroll at the New England School of Art in Boston.”

Before I could answer, he slammed the door again.

So it began.

05/24/2026