Trying To Understand How We Make the Choices We Make, in an Attic Studio

Painter-writer-cartoonist Peter Steiner says that painting was difficult during COVID — but writing was easier.  Is he serious or kidding? Sometimes it’s hard to tell with him. He is soft-spoken and dry, but always witty, all of which combine to have made him a successful cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine (and for The Lakeville Journal, where his work appears weekly).

COVID-19 was a challenge for him as an artist, he said, because he couldn’t hold art shows in the attic space at his home in Sharon, Conn. But then again, he didn’t have any shows planned.  Writing, on the other hand, “is a solitary enterprise anyway, so all that stayed the same.”

His social life was affected the most. “What few social skills I had, seemed to disappear.”

On the top floor of the home where he has lived for 18 years, Steiner writes in the smaller room that materializes first through the doorway at the top of the stairs. Through a wider opening, the second and larger room is where he paints and creates cartoons. Steiner’s favorite parts of the studio are “the spaciousness and the comfort of it, and the light.” 

He designed the house with the help of an architect. “Being an artist, I can visualize what a house can look like; so I made sketches and the architect made it better.”

Steiner inserts a soft joke, claiming the only aspect of his space that he would change would be to install air conditioning. Truthfully, he would never; instead, he suggests “better windows of higher quality.”

Reflecting more on COVID, Steiner  said that it stopped him from painting, that the last time he’d put brush to canvas was three or four months ago. He attributes it to the shared melancholy of COVID-19. “It impacted me in that I found it depressing. That doesn’t help if you’re trying to work. I think that was part of why I couldn’t get going painting. It’s just a sad, sad thing.”

The paintings that he did create were mostly “a reaction to the virus and what happened.” He also did a number of self-portraits, before switching to writing full time.  

Steiner is at work on the third book in a series about Germany under Hitler’s reign. They are police procedurals that explore decisions that humans make, their choices to do good or evil.

Steiner said he wishes to understand the process of falling into preventable problems. He gives the example of Donald Trump’s presidency, explaining it was a part of why he chose to write about Hitler: “It could’ve gone the same way.”

He surmises that, “It all has to do with our faulty thinking.” 

 

Books that Peter Steiner recommends

• “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahnemann

“‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ is about how fallible our thinking is, how our intuition is unreliable and dangerous, and reason is not something we are very good at.”

• “The Way We Live Now” by Anthony Trollope

“The Way We Live Now” is the one book I would want on a desert island.  Either that, or George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch.’ The richness of Trollope’s storytelling is a marvel and a joy to me.”  

• “And Eliot’s understanding of the foundations of human behavior and the way she can take it apart into its smallest components and let us understand our various misunderstandings amazes me and brings me joy as well. 

“As you can see, all three books have to do with what a mess we are. Human misunderstanding (and misbehavior) seems to have become one of my preoccupations these days.”

The multi-hyphenate artist Peter Steiner has separate studios for writing and painting. Photo by Anabelle Baum

During COVID-19, Steiner did self-portraits but then switched to writing. Photo by Anabelle Baum

The multi-hyphenate artist Peter Steiner has separate studios for writing and painting. Photo by Anabelle Baum

Latest News

A scenic 32-mile loop through Litchfield County

Whenever I need to get a quick but scenic bicycle ride but don’t have time to organize a group ride that involves driving to a meeting point, I just turn right out of my driveway. That begins a 32-mile loop through some of the prettiest scenery in northern Litchfield County.

I ride south on Undermountain Road (Route 41 South) into Salisbury and turn right on Main Street (Route 44 West). If I’m meeting friends, we gather at the parking area on the west side of Salisbury Town Hall where parking is never a problem.

Keep ReadingShow less
Biking Ancramdale to Copake

This is a lovely ride that loops from Ancramdale north to Copake and back. At just over 23 miles and about 1,300 feet of elevation gain, it’s a perfect route for intermediate recreational riders and takes about two hours to complete. It’s entirely on quiet roads with little traffic, winding through rolling hills, open countryside, picturesque farms and several lakes.

Along the way, you’ll pass a couple of farmstands that are worth a quick visit. There is only one hill that might be described as steep, but it is quite short — probably less than a quarter-mile.

Keep ReadingShow less
Taking on Tanglewood

Aerial view of The Shed at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass.

Provided

Now is the perfect time to plan ahead for symphonic music this summer at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. Here are a few highlights from the classical programming.

Saturday, July 5: Shed Opening Night at 8 p.m. Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra as Daniil Trifonov plays piano in an All-Rachmaninoff program. The Piano Concerto No. 3 was completed in 1909 and was written specifically to be debuted in the composer’s American tour, at another time of unrest and upheaval in Russia. Trifonev is well-equipped to take on what is considered among the most technically difficult piano pieces. This program also includes Symphonic Dances, a work encapsulating many ideas and much nostalgia.

Keep ReadingShow less
James H. Fox

SHARON — James H. Fox, resident of Sharon, passed away on May 30, 2025, at Vassar Brothers Hospital.

Born in New York, New York, to Herbert Fox and Margaret Moser, James grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. He spent his summers in Gaylordsville, Connecticut, where he developed a deep connection to the community.

Keep ReadingShow less