Each year, Pratt Institute celebrates Valentine’s Day by sharing the stories of alumni who found love while they were students. Read the stories of this year’s Pratt Pairs collected by the Office of Alumni Engagement, including serendipitous campus connections, favorite New York City date spots, and relationship advice they have for Pratt students today.
Do you know of other Pratt pairs or partners? The Office of Alumni Engagement would love to hear from you. Please share your stories by emailing alumni@pratt.edu.
Trasonia Abbott, BFA Writing ’20, and Pamela Iriarte Noya, BArch ’19
How and where did you first meet?
At a frat party, initially, but we didn’t end up connecting until a year later when Trasonia posted an omelet they made on Instagram and Pam commented asking them to make her one. So they did, and the rest is history.
What is your favorite Pratt memory as a couple?
Pratt had a Six Flags trip, and we went. It was our first time traveling together. Super fun day!
What is your favorite date story or date spot in New York?
Our favorite spot currently is Sanfords in Astoria. But our first date was to the Clinton Park Cafe across the street from Pratt (RIP).
Do you have any relationship advice for current students?
Communication is key for any partnership to work. School and other outside stressors can be a strain on a relationship, but as long as you can meet your partner in good faith and communicate your needs and feelings, you’ll be stronger together.
Where are you now, personally and professionally?
We just signed a lease together and are happily living together in Astoria. Pamela just finished her last Architect Registration Examination (ARE) exams and is waiting for her architecture license to arrive. Trasonia works at the Noguchi Museum as a gallery attendant and hosts and moderates events and panels around the city.
Paul Taylor, BArch ’79, and Helen Taylor, BFA Art Education ’78
How and where did you first meet?
We first met in the Pratt auditorium information session on the summer abroad art program in Ners, France. We realized we both commuted from Queens, and Helen offered me a lift home after the evening’s program. A few months later, we started dating pretty much upon our arrival in France. Our weekend dates included trips to Paris, Nice, and Barcelona; our Eurail pass made the trips free.
What is your favorite Pratt memory as a couple?
Our time hanging with coach Guy Burton and the fencing team.
What is your favorite date story or date spot in New York?
Other than the fencing after-parties, we enjoyed dinners at an Irish pub in Queens, Donovan’s.
Do you have any relationship advice for current students?
Join extra-curricular programs at Pratt!! It worked for us!
Where are you now, personally and professionally?
We have two grown daughters, Sarah and Eve. Sarah is married with two wonderful children and is a nurse practitioner. Eve, like us, is a Pratt graduate (Interior Design MFA Program) and is an experienced interior designer currently at Stonehill Taylor. Helen continues her painting practice and is currently immersed in pottery. She recently retired from a graphic design career and teaches art in New York City public schools.
Paul currently is president of Stonehill Taylor Architects, which he co-founded in 1986, and specializes in hospitality architecture and design. We split our time between our Manhattan and Germantown Residences.
Tim Clarke, BFA Art and Design Education ’78, and Sheyda Ardalan, BFA Communications Design ’80
How and where did you first meet?
We were at Pratt during the mid to late ’70s. Tim was an art education major and graduated in 1978. I was an international student from Iran (prior to the Islamic Revolution of 1979), having arrived in the summer of 1976. I was an illustration major and graduated in 1980. I had never been to the USA but spoke fluent English.
We were both part of Pratt’s varsity fencing team, but by the time I joined the varsity team, Tim had just graduated, so we missed each other. During my junior year, the varsity team had a friendly meet with the alumni team. Tim was fencing épée, and I was a foil fencer. We talked during the meet, and then later everyone went to someone’s place for a party. After that, we were always together.
What is your favorite Pratt memory as a couple?
It was such a free and easy-going time. In some ways, the 1970s were a continuation of the 1960s and Pratt still had that ’60s feel to it. We would sit on the lawn and just enjoy the moment.
What is your favorite date story or date spot in New York?
In those days, people didn’t “date.” We were also college students who didn’t have much money to spend on dates. We usually bought our groceries at the A&P supermarket on Myrtle Avenue and cooked in our studio. Sometimes we would go to the free concerts on the lawn in Central Park.
We would also go for long walks in Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, or ride our bikes around the area. After a tournament, the fencing team would meet for dinner at Wo Hop on Mott Street in Chinatown. It was fun having all the fencers together around one large table, eating Chinese food, and enjoying a good time. We continued doing that even after the fencing days were over.
Do you have any relationship advice for current students?
The “art couple” relationship works and works beautifully. We both love to go to museums and galleries. We love talking to each other about art and sharing ideas about our creative process. It is great to show each other our artwork and receive feedback. The one drawback is that the kids might be so exposed to art and culture that they won’t have anything to do with it as adults.
Both our children are in the arts, but there was a time when they didn’t want to step into another museum or art gallery. I think the one piece of advice I have for couples is that if you make your relationship permanent, make sure one of you has a full-time job. It is very difficult when both partners are working freelance, especially during times when jobs are not coming your way.
Where are you now, personally and professionally?
We lived in the Pratt area until 1985 when we moved to Connecticut. After Pratt, I worked for a few years as a graphic artist under the guidance of Michael Bierut in New York City and then started graduate school in art education. After 29 years of teaching art in Connecticut Public Schools, and 15 years as an adjunct professor of art and art education at Teachers College, I am now teaching art on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico.
Upon graduation, Tim started working for Kermit Love and then Jim Henson, making puppets for The Dark Crystal, Fraggle Rock, and The Muppet Show. After leaving Muppets, he started designing toys, which he continues to do in New Mexico. Some of the toys Tim has designed include Sectaurs and Boglins.
We were married in 1981 in the middle of a snowstorm in Cape Cod, where Tim’s parents lived. My parents were in Iran and the times were very hard, with the revolution in full swing, the hostage crisis, and the Iran/Iraq war, so they couldn’t make our wedding. The international student advisor at the time, Nadia Merzliakov, whom we still visit to this day, was very kind and helpful. Despite all the chaos around us, we were still able to have a very small wedding, with many of our fellow fencers in attendance.
We have two children, a son and a daughter, who are in their late 30s. We also have a granddaughter and a grandson. Our son studied theater and our daughter studied printmaking. We just celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary.
Susan McCaslin, BFA Fine Arts ’72, and George Corsillo, BFA Communications Design ’73
How and where did you first meet?
We saw each other around campus for four years but only met in senior year when introduced by our mutual friend John Curry at Erik’s Bar on DeKalb Avenue.
What is your favorite Pratt memory as a couple?
A late night throwing scoops of ice cream off the roof of George’s apartment building (301 Washington Ave) onto passing buses! (Childish but a great stress reliever!)
What is your favorite date story or date spot in New York?
After Susan moved to Broome Street in Soho, we would often go to the Cookery at 8th Street and University Place. Weekend brunch was really special because not only was it a restaurant, but a jazz club, too. Barbara Cook and a jazzy trio or Alberta Hunter would perform just a few feet away! The quintessential New York experience. We also went to Chinatown a lot for cheap meals and to feed the live chicken in an arcade game.
Do you have any relationship advice for current students?
Artists can be isolated and selfish, but you can be those things together, although someone has to take charge of the stuff of life. Kids, money, rent—all that difficult stuff, and there is always the risk that you might not be able to bend and compromise enough to allow both of you to succeed. Having a sense of humor really helps! Having fun, laughing, throwing ice cream off the roof—playing is really important. We also spend every day working side-by-side and luckily our strengths as designers are compatible. We mesh well, both doing the work we enjoy the most, leaving what we don’t like to the other.
Where are you now, personally and professionally?
We are both happy and healthy, living and working in New Haven, Connecticut, where there is a vibrant and inclusive art community. We have three grown children and two grandchildren.
Professionally, we have a studio called Design Monsters where we design book jackets, book interiors, posters, websites, and logos—the works! (And now vinyl LPs again!) George has colored the comic Doonesbury for over 20 years. Susan has a long-standing fine art practice and teaches drawing at Albertus Magnus College and graphic design at Fairfield University. We have no plans to retire—art is our life.
Read more stories of Pratt Pairs from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018.