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Black Mountain
College Project

Eini Sihvonen was the youngest of three Sihvonen siblings to attend Black Mountain College and the last to enroll. After graduation from high school in Voluntown, Connecticut, she attended Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Massachusetts for a semester. The emphasis was on commercial art, and although she know she wanted to be an artist, she did not know in what area. She recalled that she was attracted to Black Mountain by its small size, Josef Albers’s teaching, the informality of the school, the grading system, and the location in the mountains.

At Black Mountain Sihvonen took Albers’s classes, Geometry for Artists with Max Dehn, courses with M.C. Richards, dance with Elizabeth Jennerjahn, and music with Charlotte Schlesinger. She also studied weaving with Trude Guermonprez.

Sihvonen left Black Mountain in the spring of 1949 when Josef Albers, Anni Albers and Trude Guermonprez resigned. She moved to New York and took evening courses with Lili Blumenau in weaving. She supported herself with a day job working for a printer.

She later moved to Voluntown, Connecticut where she wove wall hangings, afghans, and other items.

Eine Sihvonen at Black Mountain College