Brenda Isenberg King AIS class of 1974 bren_isenberg@earthlink.net

Brenda Isenberg (class of 1974) and Joe King (class of 1978) married in 2002.

I attended AIS from 1969 through 1973 (8th through 10th grades). I’ve stayed in touch with Linda Finlay, and we’ve exchanged visits between New York City and England over the decades. Erika White’s family and my family (the Isenbergs) went to the other’s dinner parties and events ever since our respective returns to NYC from India in the 1970s. Joe King, AES class of 78, joined us for the 2002 Passover Seder at the Whites in NYC, and he started off the night with his first taste ever of both gefilte fish and old-fashioned Manischewitz wine, which he used to wash the gefilte fish down. After the 2001 reunion in DC, I stayed in close contact with a small group of alumni, and invited the afore-mentioned Joe up for New Year’s Eve. Six months later, greatly in love, I moved down to Richmond, Virginia to be with him, my reluctant son in tow. Joe and I got married in November of 2002, and live in Richmond, where he works for the Department of Defense.

My son Ben, from a previous marriage, is 19, and a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, majoring in film and photography. His freshman year, Ben made the Dean’s list, was offered membership in two honor societies, and is already developing a resume of exhibitions, and credits. He just moved into his own apartment on August 4 of this year – 2005 – after living in the dorms a few blocks away from us his first year of college.

My corporate life was rather good for a long time - I had a nice job at Merrill Lynch for fourteen years, graphically organizing financial information and concepts for Merrill’s senior management. The hours were long, really long, often 80 plus hours a week, but the package was unbeatable, and I had a lot of freedom and perks. My office was in the North Tower of the World Financial Center, the most gorgeous place I’ve ever worked. The World Trade Center site is directly east of the WFC.

Joe on Ochre Approx 8' x 4' © Brenda Isenberg, 2003-2005

During and after my Merrill years, I was earning a Master of Fine Arts degree from the New York Academy of Art – finally granted in 2003, and now I teach drawing and painting at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond (formerly Hand Workshop Art Center.) I also have a number of private students who come to our home for classes. I’ll let you know when I find a gallery – my search hasn’t really started yet, but it’s something I have to do. I have some paintings up at http://www.artroad.com, including two portraits of Joe.

Right after our India days, my family returned to our brownstone on the upper West Side of Manhattan. I also returned to the private school I had previously attended a few blocks away (Franklin School, now called Dwight) and graduated after my junior year. I took a couple of years off, going back to India to stay with Linda Finlay’s family at #10 Golf Links, spending time at the Art Students League of New York, and working, not wanting to go to college when I was 15, and eventually graduated from the State University of New York, Empire State College (an independent study program) in 1979. I bought my own loft that same year – in an illegal building, no less, and moved into it with no electric or plumbing, and proceeded to renovate, something I naively figured would not be all that bad as I had watched my parents do it with the brownstone. These days, my projects are much smaller in scope. My last one was building a double screen for the previously feral kittens I still have housed in my art studio in our Richmond townhouse.

We still have an Upper West Side apartment in New York, although it’s rented out now. I haven’t gotten to the city in a while, but Ben goes up every month. I’m happy in Richmond, especially now that we live in a pre-civil war town house in Shockoe Bottom, in downtown Richmond. We moved here the day after Ben graduated from his suburban high school in 2004. It was very peaceful out there, but two years of peace was enough for us. Our area of town is full of character and historical homes (this part of Richmond was not burned down during the Civil War); it’s also a lot edgier than the suburbs, and only a few blocks away are both the church where Patrick Henry proclaimed “Give me liberty or give me death”, and the Edgar Allen Poe Museum. I know about ravens now! Out in the burbs, we got a real Disney scene going, putting out about 40 pounds of wild bird seed a month, attracting a fantastical variety of wild life. To Joe’s dismay, one winter, I also nurtured thousands of seedlings in our guest room. Even though we had our own yard in Manhattan when I was growing up, gardening had been my mother’s thing – I just collected the worms and let them go. I continue to garden in a tiny yard sandwiched between the house and the ruined stable. Joe and I have two of our own cats, Houston (pronounced HOW-stin, after Houston Street) and Picard. Life is good, and my challenge now is to push myself to find appropriate galleries for my work.

Home | Reunion 2005 | Class News | Community | Photographs | Email Addresses | Contact | Back to Top