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Never before have I encountered more intriguing works of art than those done by Andy Warhol. … Andy might just be the most interesting and, at the same time, the most confusing individual you will ever read about. Andy’s work, like his life, is like none other’s. … Andy’s father, Ondrej Wharhola, is best described as a bald, burly man with a bulging belly and massive upper arms, pudgy nose and bristling sideburns. … (Bekris 6) He was married and living with Julia Warhola, mother of Andy, for three years in Mikova. … (Bekris 9)

Andy Warhol was born on September 28, 1930 in Forest City, Pennsylvania, or so we think. This is what the original birth certificate read, however Andy wanted people to believe he was born in McKeesport, or even Hawaii. … Andy was raised in a coal mining town in Philadelphia. … This might explain Andy’s later fascination with death-related topics. In 1930, Andy’s father got a steady job laying roads and moving houses. … The rent was six dollars a week and Andy’s father had to work odd jobs to barley pay the rent. It was not just Andy and his parents, he had two other brothers, one older and one younger. … ” (Bekris 12)

Andy always had a problem with grammar school. … As most children do, they saw this in Andy and picked on him frequently. (Bekris 18) Andy’s brother Paul stated, “At age four Andy cried a lot at school and one day a little black girl slapped him” (Bekris 15) He was very traumatized by this incident and asked his mother if she could keep him home from school. As the loving mother she was, she took Andy out of school and kept him home for two years. … It took his mother, brother and neighbor to drag Andy back to school. … In this town Andy made new friends, which were particularly girls. This would later explain Andy’s homosexual tendencies. … She was said to be bright and stimulating which would encourage Andy to do better in school. Andy began to have a fascination with the cinema. … Andy would end up using these same images in his prints. Andy started to distance himself from boys and became closer to girls and his new found talent of drawing. Andy’s brother John said, ” When Andy was out in the field by the time you hit the ball he wasn’t there. … Andy soon got the reputation as a “mamas boy”. … At age six Andy had entered the second grade. His teacher Catharine Meta said that Andy would walk through the halls with his head down wishing he was invisible. …

From early on in Andy’s life he had been a sickly child. Because Andy was known to be a mammas boy and a crybaby his parents paid little to no attention to him when he whined about being hurt or sick. At age two Andy’s eyes swelled shut due to an infection and his mother had to use daily doses of boric acid to get rid of the mucus. … At age six Andy contracted scarlet fever, which would later effect his overall development. His illness went unnoticed until Andy began not being able to control his limbs or speech. … This part of Andy’s life greatly contributed to his mistrust in people and his art. (Bekris 19)

Andy’s art talent in High School was amazing. … ” Andy attended Scheley High School. … Andy was accepted to both but chose to attend Carnegie Tech. … Andy’s freshman courses consisted of drawing, pictorial and decorative design, color, hygiene, and thought and expression. Andy had a great struggle with all of his courses, but thought and expression was by far his worst. This was probably because of Andy’s phobia of expressing himself orally. Andy was a man of few words; another reason was because he had such poor grammar. Fortunately, Andy made two friends in this class who tried to get Andy a passing grade. …

At the time Andy was attending school, there was an economic depression, and the war was ending. … Andy was one of them. Because Andy showed such passion to his work his teachers fought to have Andy attend Summer school and go for re-admissions the following year. (Feldman, 9) While Andy was attending Summer school he got a job delivering fruit with his brother. … ” When Andy returned for re-admissions he presented the sketchbook. They allowed Andy back in. Along with being able to come back to Carnegie Tech, his sketches were put on display and Andy received forty dollars.