About the artist:

Pat Passlof was an American abstract expressionist painter. After studying with Willem de Kooning at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, Passlof received a bachelor's degree from The Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She moved to New York in the late 1940s, where she took private instruction from de Kooning and other artists. She taught art at the College of Staten Island from 1983 until 2010. She previously taught at Richmond College, also in Staten Island, from 1972 to 1983 at which time Richmond and Staten Island College were merged within the CUNY system.[2] She is among the artists characterized and whose work is collected by the lead character Ira Levinaon in the novel "The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks and inspired by Black Mountain College and in turn the movie made from the book also named The Longest Ride. Passlof was married to painter Milton Resnick, who died in 2004. Passlof died of cancer on November 13, 2011 in New York City, New York. She was 83. A long-planned exhibition of her paintings opened at the Elizabeth Harris Gallery in Chelsea, NY six days after her death. (from Wikipedia)