Living Room, c. 1945

James Warhola: My name is James Warhola. I'm one of Andy Warhol's nephews. I'm originally from Pittsburgh where Andy Warhol's from.

This is a painting he did in his college days. It's called The Living Room. It was for a project at Carnegie Tech; now it’s called the Carnegie Mellon University. 

Many of the projects at Carnegie Tech were really problem-solving ideas. This one was something that the teacher required him [to come] up with a fictional story of a family living in his neighborhood. What Andy did was he didn't really use a fictional—he actually used his own apartment, his own house, and his own experience for the basis of his project.

Everything's disheveled and a little out of order. There's no curtains on the windows, but that kind of probably showed the evidence that they were just a lower class family. But they did have means of entertainment, which was the radio. This family was also religious. They kept the crucifix above the fireplace. Of course, my grandmother would make doilies and little decorative covers to go under the lamps and things, so that is a little bit more evidence of the environment that they lived in.