1. Don Rubbo was a mentor and guide of Peter Max and an affiliate of Andy Warhol in the mid-1960s.
12 Facts About Don Rubbo
2.
Don Rubbo then married Cathy Palermo in 1970, and they had one child, Michael.
3.
In 1962 Don Rubbo started a small Manhattan arts studio with friend Tom Daly and Daly's friend from the Art Students League of New York, Peter Max.
4.
In 1963, Daly, Max and Don Rubbo did the illustration, design and color for Helga Sandburg's children's book Joel and the Wild Goose.
5.
Don Rubbo designed the distinctive font for Dove soap, which is still used today in their advertising.
6.
In 1967 Don Rubbo shared a studio with Max Menikoff, designing ads and package design.
7.
In 1968, Don Rubbo moved his family into 365 Canal Street, the former Canal Street Lumber Company building, and with the help of his students and children he ripped out the lumber racks and built one of the earliest artist's lofts in New York City's SoHo district.
8.
Don Rubbo presided over the large kitchen table, and fed everyone who walked in the door.
9.
Don Rubbo filled this huge space with his multi-media sculptures, some of which were large styrofoam structures that he and his students and children carved, coated with clear acrylic and then painted with colors that seemed to breathe and pulsate under changing lights, creating the illusion of "living art".
10.
Don and his son Donald Rubbo planted one of the first community gardens in Manhattan's Lower West Side, in the weed-filled sidewalk plot next to the former Mead Paper site in Tribeca at Canal and Varick Streets.
11.
In 1973 Don Rubbo moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for several years, and taught many young Puerto Rican artists at the Centro Nacional de las Artes in old San Juan.
12.
Don Rubbo suffered from heart disease, and had his first heart attack in 1968.