Complex sentence: His mother wanted to be a fashion artist, but dedicated herself to the family instead, while continuing to paint; his father is Morris Weiss, a successful cartoonist, from whom Weiss sees himself as inheriting an irreverence to life.
Split into simpler sentences: His mother wanted to be a fashion artist, but dedicated herself to family, while continuing to paint. His father is Morris Weiss, a well known cartoonist, from whom Weiss sees himself as inheriting an irreverence to life.