October 31, 1993

At today's Mass, we had a guest appearance by the local Knights of Columbus, who were part of a special procession. I think it related to All Saints Day.

October 30, 1993

In bed, listening to the Halloween festivities. There was a tradition of having a small riot in Carbondale every year on the weekend closest to Halloween, going back a couple of decades. It had gotten so bad that my first couple of years there they actually closed school for a brief break, so that they could close the dorms and send as many people away as possible. A lot of the worst behavior had been attributed to out of towners (heard that a few years earlier the cops actually had road blocks on all the roads into town and turned away anyone without local ID), the smashed windows and other major property destruction. The previous year I left town myself, but this time I stuck around. Major police presence this night kept it to levels not much worse than an regular weekend on the Strip. Probably between 100 and 200 arrests, mostly alcohol related.

October 29, 1993

Walking up the Strip toward the Glove Factory, I passed a city worker on a step stool, applying vaseline to the surface of a traffic light pole. Preparations for Halloween weekend, and the customary riots that accompanied it, was my assumption.

October 28, 1993

We got a package from Graphic Chemical on this day, with 24 cans of ultramarine blue etching ink. That is far more than we could want or need. Turned out that when Linn (who took over the print assistant job from me) was ordering the ink, at first she wrote 2 cans on the requisition form, then crossed it out and wrote 4 next to it. When someone from our department office processed the form, she read the number as 24, and put through the order. We later arranged to return the extra 20 cans of ink.

October 27, 1993

My tiny apartment in Carbondale had all electric climate control- wall unit air conditioner for summer, electric baseboard heaters in winter. Reasoning that no tennant would need to use both at the same time, the landlord provided one set of fuses that needed to be switched from one slot to another (in the individual fuse boxes each apartment had) as the seasons changed. So on this day, I pulled the fuse cartridge out of the slot marked "air" and put it in the slot marked "heat".

October 26, 1993

Beginning a new etching project. I had a zinc plate covered with hard ground, and my old dry point needle, from my etching classes at William and Mary.

October 25, 1993

Teachers occasionally get asked to do things beyond the teaching of subject material- recommendation letters, etc. This one was a little different, a student asking me to sign a form involved in gaining U.S. citizenship.

October 24, 1993

Father Terry often took time to talk to kids who accompanied their parents in the line for the Eucharist.

October 23, 1993

One of the art history classes was spending the day in St Louis, mostly checking out some stuff at SLAM, under the guidance of Prof Jed Jackson. Some of the other grads, myself included, took advantage of the offer to tag along for fun in the big city. Saw art, bought bread and records, went to a bar. Riding home late on some city highway I noticed what appeared to be a brightly lit concrete smokestack, tapering slightly toward the top. As we continued to drive the top seemed to suddenly bend before my eyes. Was it toppling? No, the bending continued a little more until the spotlights finally revealed another matching piece. Turns out I had seen the edge view of the St Louis Arch.

October 22, 1993

After the alcohol, the dancing begins. I seem to recall that the music in this case was an album from Public Enemy. I declined to participate.

October 21, 1993

Cheonae Kim, adjunct faculty member in the Art Department, offered a series of workshops on book arts and box making. On this day we learned a style of Japanese stab binding. This pattern is called Noble Binding or sometimes Kangxi Binding.

October 20, 1993

Falling leaves- autumn has definitely arrived in Carbondale.

October 19, 1993

Doing some research at the university library, looking up something in a world atlas I believe.

October 18, 1993

One of the projects that I always did with my GEC art class was to have them make masks. Some constructed them on ready made forms, others built them from scratch. This print shows a sample from ones brought to class that day.

October 17, 1993

We had some guests at the Newman Center for Mass this day, two Liberian women who escaped a possible massacre by hiding in a convent basement.

October 16, 1993

Shooting slides in the clean room of the Glove Factory. Back then I usually shot prints against a black cloth background.

October 15, 1993

At least once every semester that I teach, a student cuts themselves with their x-acto knife. This semester it was someone from my 2D class, who got his thumb. Far from the worst accident in one of my classes, none of which have ever been really serious.

October 14, 1993

Having a bowl of rice noodle soup at Kahala Fast Foods, just off the strip in Carbondale.

October 13, 1993

The warm weather returned briefly, bringing the bees out of hibernation, but no flowers were left at this late date. They settled for this spilled soda instead, which I passed walking on campus, somewhere near the main entrance I recall.

October 12, 1993

Went to see an exhibition in the Vergette, which included this piece from Judith Shelton-Grey, an oversized cribbage board. I liked the object well enough, but I don't remember now what the significance was.

October 11, 1993

The first really cold day of the fall season. The large C in the background could stand for cold, but in this case it also marks the 100th print in the series.

October 10, 1993

Father Terry comes over during the extended sign of peace portion of the Newman Center Mass.

October 9, 1993

Another day of being the clean hands part of Steven Hudson's editioning process. Another one of my duties was to pull the paper out of the water tank in which it had been soaking, blot it, and lay it on the plate on the press. We finished the edition of 50 large etchings, plus a few extra artists proofs, one of which he gave me for my efforts.

October 8, 1993

I spent a good bit of the day helping visiting artist Steve Hudson with his edition for the visiting artist print. He had worked on the plate during the week, and all that remained was the printing. He did the important part, inking the plate, while I was doing clean hands assisting. This image refers to one of my duties, operating the press.

October 7, 1993

Joel decided to host a little darts tournament in his studio, in honor of visiting artist (and alumni) Steve Hudson, in town to do the annual visiting artist print. Also taking turns- grad students Brian Gibson, Armen Sarrafian, and Steve Peters.

October 6, 1993

My notes on this one are minimal, just reading pasta party. I have to assume that the noodles are mine, but this is not my house. I'm guessing the wine and cupcakes came from someone else.

October 5, 1993

Got back the first paper from my Philosophy of Art class, found I got an A. By no means did I feel this was certain, as this was one of the hardest classes I've ever taken in my 10 years of college. My ability to write a coherent essay that actually answers the question assigned saved me again.

October 4, 1993

Teaching my GEC class, when I heard a sudden commotion from the back of the room. One of my students suddenly went into a grand mal seizure and hit the floor. I have some experience with this through my work with people with developmental disabilities (a significant percentage had some kind of seizure disorder), so the proper steps were taken, and he came out of it before the ambulance arrived. He claimed he had never had one before.

October 3, 1993

Most weeks there was a sign language interpreter at the Mass at the Newman Center. She was usually positioned near the lectern.

October 2, 1993

My favorite Carbondale band, Black Mamba, performs for the final time at Hanger 9. Lead guitarist (and former printmaking student) Mark Jaroski would return to town and perform in the same bar with a Chicago based band the next year.

October 1, 1993

A day of much money. The first of the month brought a full month's paycheck, plus gifts of money for my upcoming birthday started arriving. A good day for my bank account.