The Fourth Of July

Injury Time

2008-07-05T19:49:00.000-07:00

Around the time I finished the Fourth of July series, the 1994 World Cup was in progress, and I watched almost every televised match. With the close games (ties or one goal leads), I found the most exciting time was when the clock reached the end of regulation, but play continued. In soccer, the referee on the field keeps the time, and stops the clock during play stoppages, such as for injuries. So even when the scoreboard reaches the end of regulation, there is often additional time left. This is commonly called injury time or stoppage time. Announcers would estimate about how much time that was, but no one knew for sure except the man with the whistle. I always watched these moments intently, waiting to see if the score would hold or if one team would score and change that, never knowing exactly when the end would come.

On July 4, 1994 I cut the last block, printed it, hung it on my studio wall as the end of the complete set, and had a shot of tequila from a bottle one of the grads had. And with that, a project I had devoted a year to was over. It was hard to stop. I had trained myself to look for art inspiration, to find my print of the day, and the habit was not going to be easy to break. I considered producing a new series, which I gave the title Injury Time, which would continue the same format for an unknown period of time. It would eventually end, but just like those soccer games, I couldn't say exactly when. But in the end I decided to let the series end on its anniversary. Still, the habit was hard to break. Shortly after, I did another short series using the same black and white format, images from an outdoors store in town called Shawnee Trails. One of the painting grads worked there, and it was full of interesting objects. The eight prints shown above are that series. They look like images that could have been part of the Fourth of July, but were chosen for the visual rather than a connection with a particular day. Some of the prints weren't bad, but there seemed to be no point to the series. One might call it a bit of a hangover.

The ability to be inspired by everyday things around me remained, and has influenced my art to this day.

I don't expect to be adding any new prints to this blog, but there may be some additional entries. I recently had the 4th of July animated film transferred to digital. I'd love to do a little editing and get it posted on line- Information will appear here if and when that happens. If there are any more showings of the whole set, I'll post news and photos of that. And I may decide to do some additional blogs like this one, showing some of my other completed series work.

July 4, 1994

2008-07-04T07:33:00.001-07:00

Early on the morning of July 4, 1994, I walked over to my studio and carved this block. The text combines two different translations of a verse from Ecclesiastes, a biblical book that I often turn to when I need a good quote or a title for a print or exhibition. (years later I would base an entire print series on it) For me the quote was a good way to sum up the year that had just passed. There were good days and bad days. Sometimes that is out of our control. Enjoy the good, accept the bad, and get ready for the next day and whatever it brings. That was pretty much my philosophy when choosing the images and cutting the 366 blocks that made up this series.

July 3, 1994

2008-07-03T05:22:00.001-07:00

Closing up my studio at the end of the night. A reference to the impending conclusion of this series.

July 2, 1994

2008-07-02T05:06:00.001-07:00

When I donated blood the previous day, I was warned not to drink alcohol for at least 8 hours. And I didn't. But later that evening I was at the Glove Factory, went downstairs to fill my water cup, and ran into one of the undergrad sculptors, who insisted that I come into her studio for a drink. She had a bottle of bourbon and a 2 litre bottle of soda to mix it with. One led to another, and another, and another. Eventually she wanted to go out to a bar. She was upset, claiming that her boyfriend had just dumped her. I didn't believe this (her sole reason for this conclusion was that he wasn't home when she called his house earlier in the evening) and decided maybe I should go along to keep her out of trouble. We started off at the closest bar (Sidetracks, a popular college student hangout), and eventually moved over to the Hangar, where a band was playing. When that closed, I figured the night was over, but she heard someone talking about a keg party at a house nearby and literally dragged me part of the way. (she also turned cartwheels in the street part of the way) I had only one beer at each location, so was gradually sobering, but she was still pretty drunk. I finally convinced her to call it a night around 4:30 am, and walked her back to the Glove Factory, where she picked up her bicycle and headed home.

The image in the print refers to the hangover I woke up with after all the events of the previous evening, much of which actually occurred in the early morning hours of this day.

July 1, 1994

2008-07-01T07:05:00.001-07:00

I decide to participate in a local blood drive. I never had before, but had often thought about it. It was at a car dealership on the highway, with a shuttle that could pick up people around town, but I just drove my car. It turned out to be simple and relatively painless, and I would become a regular donor.

June 30, 1994

2008-06-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

Some baling wire and wire cutters for class. I got the wire from Dillinger's Feed Store up the street from my apartment and studio, a few bucks for a spool like the one shown. After having seen some wire projects from another class, I decided to incorporate into my own summer sections.

June 29, 1994

2008-06-29T06:13:00.001-07:00

My studio chair. When I took over my studio in the Glove Factory from David Kirkland, he gave me some of the leftover furniture from the studio he moved into, Eddie's temporarily vacated space. That included two wooden chairs in various states of disrepair. One was in pieces, the other wobbly but intact, except that the wood seat was unattached. In fact, the seat seemed too small for the chair, just barely spanning the rim of the seat. To make it safer, I cut a piece of scrap lauan to exactly fit the rim, and then just placed the seat piece on top of that. It became the chair I used at my desk while drawing and cutting small blocks. Around the time I did this print, some time after Eddie returned to America, he saw the chair in my studio, and claimed it was his. He didn't want it back- he wanted it to go to Shona. However, Shona didn't want it, and eventually transferred to a different school. Eddie never reclaimed it for himself, so it remained my studio chair for the rest of my time in Carbondale.

June 28, 1994

2008-06-28T06:43:00.001-07:00

That summer the U.S. hosted the World Cup, which meant that all the games were played during convenient daytime hours for those of us in this part of the world. Unfortunately, most of these games were on cable, so I could not watch at home. However, we worked around that. Fellow grad Brian (from Scotland) and I got together pretty much every day to watch the early and late games. The early game was usually at the Island, a Chinese restaurant/bar near campus. We'd order the daily special (which was usually not that special) and a few beers and watch the game. Sometimes Armen joined us. The alternate location, especially for the late afternoon games, was the Cellar, where the food options were fewer, but the beer was fine. (sometimes soft drinks if we decided we needed a short break from alcohol) My notes for this day say that the U.S. team advanced to the next round, for the first time in many decades. Records show that we didn't play this day, so maybe it was the result of another team in our group losing that got us our elimination round spot.

June 27, 1994

2008-06-27T05:09:00.001-07:00

I wandered into the studio space of Tamara, one of the undergrad sculpture students, right across from Laura's space. She was working on a project that involved attaching (with wire) small square pieces of copper and other metal, along with other random rusty hardware, to a piece of peg board. She was doing a series of these pieces. My notes refer to it as a landscape, but I don't remember if that was my association or her description.

June 26, 1994

2008-06-26T06:39:00.001-07:00

Looking out a window of the Glove Factory into the parking lot. This time of year it was a lot less crowded. The only car in view is the old used one recently purchased by Brian.

June 25, 1994

2008-06-25T05:09:00.000-07:00

Print paper often comes in large sheets, and sometimes we need the paper smaller. Rather than cut the paper with scissors or a knife, we usually tear it. This is done with some kind of straight edge- ideally a tear bar with a sharp edge, but my 42 inch metal ruler did the job on this day.

June 24, 1994

2008-06-24T06:41:00.000-07:00

John Lindt's MFA exhibition reception. The food, including these large marinated mushroom caps, was much better than average for these receptions.

June 23, 1994

2008-06-23T05:39:00.001-07:00

Using my electric sander. I prepared woodblocks by putting on a very thin layer of wood filler, then sanding them smooth. These days I do it by hand with some fine grit sandpaper, but back then I used my small orbital sander.

June 22, 1994

2008-06-22T06:53:00.000-07:00

Making iced tea. I'm not a huge fan of the bottled iced teas, and the instant powders are even worse, so I usually brew it myself. That's what I was doing here, filling a half gallon jug with boiling water, and adding tea bags. It does take a while to cool afterwards, but the final product is much better than the alternatives.

June 21, 1994

2008-06-21T07:04:00.001-07:00

I came home to my apartment and noticed a harvestman (what I grew up calling a daddy long legs) on my screen door. What made it stand out for me was that it had 7 legs, so I guess it had lost one somewhere along the way.

June 20, 1994

2008-06-20T07:09:00.001-07:00

A dream- hell's mailbox. From the outside, it appeared to be an ordinary shallow box stood up on its side, but when viewed from the inside, the box was much deeper and had no back. It was a portal to hell, but one used just for the purpose of sending mail back and forth between there and our plane of existence.

June 19, 1994

2008-06-19T05:17:00.001-07:00

Grad painter Kendra had taken a part time job in an outdoors equipment store near the campus, and sometimes I would stop there to talk to her. I saw this odd metal object on display and investigated. It was called an "expresso" pot. I don't know if that was the common mistaken spelling/pronunciation often seen in those days before our nation became coffee obsessed, or some kind of trademark. Either way, I guess the idea was to not let being in the wilderness keep you from having really strong coffee.

June 18, 1994

2008-06-18T05:27:00.001-07:00

Two kinds of trains passed through Carbondale every day- a few Amtrak passenger trains (including the famous City of New Orleans), and 20 or more Illinois Central freight trains. Normally the same trains could be grouped another way- trains that stopped (Amtrak) and trains that didn't (the freight). On this day, one of those freight trains stopped. I don't know if there was a malfunction, or if it was waiting for something further up the line. The problem is that when a 200 car train stopped in Carbondale, there was no way to get across the tracks except the one shown here- a guy walked over to the train and climbed over the coupling between cars.

June 17, 1994

2008-06-17T06:35:00.001-07:00

Filling up. I kept a large plastic drinking cup (the kind that's often refillable or a "souvenir") in my studio, and regularly went downstairs to the drinking fountain to fill it up. Especially in the hot weather, when not even my multiple fans kept me from sweating as I worked.

June 16, 1994

2008-06-16T05:01:00.001-07:00

One of my spring students was looking for her artwork from the GEC class, but said she couldn't find it. By this point all the unclaimed portfolios had been moved to a dumpster outside the Blue Barracks, so I told her where it would likely be and she went digging for it until she found it.

June 15, 1994

2008-06-15T07:50:00.001-07:00

With the heat of summer building, I decided to go out and get a fan for my studio. The Glove Factory was actually a converted factory building with a brick exterior. On hot sunny days those bricks would heat up and bake those of us inside. The part of the building where the student studios were was not air conditioned- just an overhead fan in each space. Having this standing fan made a big difference.

June 14, 1994

2008-06-14T07:08:00.001-07:00

Recording cassette tapes for people I know- one for fellow grad Kendra, one for my father. I don't remember what the tapes were of, but I'm pretty sure they weren't the same.

June 13, 1994

2008-06-13T05:07:00.001-07:00

The foot and bike bridge over route 51. It connected the main campus to a bunch of dorms across the street. Also across the street was the Blue Barracks, where some of the art and design classes were held, but I thought it more efficient to cross at street level, putting me closer to the building's entrance, so that's what I typically did when I was going there from the campus. On this day I took the bridge more out of curiosity, since I had never been on it before.

June 12, 1994

2008-06-12T05:10:00.001-07:00

At the Newman Center for Mass. It's a common custom for the congregation to join hands during the saying of the Lord's Prayer, and such was the tradition here.

June 11, 1994

2008-06-11T05:31:00.001-07:00

Shaving, for something like the 340th time since I began this series of prints.

June 10, 1994

2008-06-10T05:44:00.001-07:00

Grating some cheese. Since this is just a few days after returning from New Jersey, this is likely a wedge of Locatelli pecorino romano brought from the east. On a family trip to Italy we were introduced to freshly grated romano; after that, grated cheese from a cardboard container would never again suffice.

June 9, 1994

2008-06-09T04:39:00.001-07:00

After a phone conversation with a friend, I was in a mood to re-read a favorite science fiction piece- Midsummer Century, a novella by James Blish. The quote and image relate to the book, as well as to the phone conversation.

June 8, 1994

2008-06-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

A caffeine boost on the second day of driving. I believe this can of soda came from a rest stop on I-64 somewhere in Indiana. With a relatively short distance to drive (about 300 miles) and no unusual conditions to deal with, I reached Carbondale by early afternoon.

June 7, 1994

2008-06-07T07:10:00.001-07:00

Relaxing on my king size bed in a motel in the Carrollton, Kentucky area. This is where I always stopped in my summer westbound trips. Having much more daylight (at the western edge of the eastern time zone, it was often light until almost 10 pm) than the winter trip, I drove an extra few hours on I-71, thus shortening my drive the second day.

June 6, 1994

2008-06-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

Packing for my trip back to Illinois. I loaded most of it the night before, to save time in the morning, as I always tried to get on the road by around 6:30 am on these long trips.

June 5, 1994

2008-06-05T14:24:00.001-07:00

On our way home from the Jarger Invitational in South Jersey, we were asked to divert to the Shore area to see my grandparents, and to help plant my grandfather's garden. He had always been into planting vegetables and fruits (his previous house not only had several hundred square feet of his huge yard planted, but he also planted more in a large corner of his neighbor's yard), and his yard at his new place had a large vegetable plot right in the center of the back lawn. He had starter plants delivered, and my brother and I spent a few hours digging holes, and planting tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, beans, etc, following his exact directions regarding location, hole depth, manure, backfill. He even had us plant some collard plants, which he was sure he didn't order, but he figured he'd find some use for them. Our time at his house insured that we would be caught in the heavy summer Sunday afternoon northbound Parkway traffic.

June 4, 1994

2008-06-04T05:38:00.001-07:00

The Brillo Putter, a special object at the Jarger Invitational. When my brother took up golf in high school, he used old family clubs, and he had these with him at one of the invitationals. My cousin saw the Brillo and remembered it from his childhood, a conversation between his father and my grandfather, who had just acquired it, probably a premium through his supermarket job. My cousin did a whole routine describing the conversation- my grandfather's not knowing quite what to make of it. It seemed like a decent enough putter, but there was the Brillo logo stamped on it, but still it was a good putter, etc...

June 3, 1994

2008-06-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

For several years my brother and I used to drive down to my cousin's house for the Jarger Invitational. Sort of a continuation of the summer vacations we took at the shore as kids, where we were often joined by my slightly older cousin, who lived nearby. After college, my cousin (the Jarger in question) took up residence in South Jersey on the outskirts of Philadelphia. The Invitational generally included a game of miniature golf, a short bowling tournament, an epic Monopoly match, 9 holes of regular golf (weather permitting), and large amounts of pasta. If time permitted, we would sometimes take the local rapid transit (the PATCO train, which we called the "speedyline") into Philadelphia to go to a favored brew pub, as we did on this night. The pasta and beer were demonstration sports only, not included in the overall competition.

June 2, 1994

2008-06-02T05:00:00.001-07:00

I had plans to get together with Kathy in the afternoon, but she said we needed to stop by the Montclair State radio station first. She had promised she'd meet someone there for a quick game of chess. The game ended up being anything but quick. While that was going on, I took advantage of being in the station to check out some new releases, even taping a whole album. By the time she was done with the game, it was too late to do anything else, so we each went home, planning to meet one more time before I returned to Illinois. The image is from the end of the game, with her king in check.

June 1, 1994

2008-06-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

I had lunch at the lengendary White Manna in Hackensack. In my opinion, the best hamburger joint in the world. The perfect combination of meat, cheese, onion, bun, and grease. My father first learned about it when he worked in Hackensack, brought me there for the first time in the late 70's. Later I would have a job in Hackensack myself, but at the other end of the city, way too far to get to and back on my 30 minute lunch break, so trips there remained rare. Occasionally I have brought out of town friends there, to show them one of New Jersey's food landmarks. My last visit was a few years ago when work took me up to Bergen County, but I'm sure if I went there today it would be exactly the same.

May 31, 1994

2008-05-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

Driving on Route 3, I pass a prison work detail cleaning litter along the side of the road. In an odd coincidence, on this trip to New Jersey I had purchased a collection of the complete Vocalion (Columbia) recordings of bluesman Bukka White, and my favorite song of his is "When Can I Change My Clothes?", a song about his shame in being seen is his own prison uniform on similar public work details. (I have also seen this song listed as "Parchman Farm Blues" on other records, but on this disc that title is given to a completely different song.)

May 30, 1994

2008-05-30T05:23:00.001-07:00

Went up to my friend Rich's house for a Memorial Day cookout. On the menu, obviously, were hot dogs, corn on the cob, and chocolate cake. I think I recall some beer being involved as well.

May 29, 1994

2008-05-29T05:00:00.001-07:00

Doing a charcoal rubbing off a cut woodblock, the one of my friend Kathy, started a few days earlier. It seems unlikely that I was finished with the whole thing, so maybe I was just checking the progress of the face, visible here.

May 28, 1994

2008-05-28T05:01:00.001-07:00

My college friend Jenny marries John in an outdoor ceremony in the Rose Garden at Hershey. A few other of our housemates from the Italian Studies House were also in attendance. The flowers were all in bloom and the weather was perfect. The one incongruous thing was that the top peak of one of the roller coasters in the nearby theme park was visible above the landscaping, so every few minutes we would hear the screaming of the passengers as the cars crested over the top. After the ceremony and the photos we reconvened at the country club, where the reception had about the level of chocolate that you might expect in Hershey.

May 27, 1994

2008-05-27T08:04:00.001-07:00

I arrived in the Hershey, PA area early in the afternoon and checked into my motel outside of town. I was there for the occasion of my college friend Jenny's wedding the following day. With a lot of time on my hands, I decided to go visit the Chocolate World tour. Fearing possible parking issues on this Memorial Day weekend, and being that it appeared to be straight 2+ mile trip down the main the main highway from my motel, I decided that I would walk there. This wouldn't have been a bad plan at all, except that I had brought my recently purchased shoes on the trip. They weren't broken in very well, and even before I got there, I was already feeling the effects. I went on the free tour, got my free Hershey bar (milk chocolate with almonds I think) and had to exit through the giant chocolate related shopping area. I was tempted by the many chocolate displays, but decided that the long walk home on a hot day was not the best time to be carrying a lot of chocolate, so I just bought a soda at the snack bar to drink on the walk back to my room. By the time I got there, my feet were covered with painful blisters. When I went out to get some dinner in the evening, I took my car.

May 26, 1994

2008-05-26T07:12:00.001-07:00

My friend Kathy was perhaps the biggest fan of my art, at least since seeing my MA show at Montclair a few years earlier. When I invited her to sit for a portrait, she was happy to do so. She came over to my parents' house and we did the drawing in the living room. She sat on the couch and I sat on the floor with the woodblock. I did a pencil drawing on the block, with plans to cut it later.

May 25, 1994

2008-05-25T05:38:00.001-07:00

I visited the adult training program in Hackensack where I used to work, and had brought some of my recent artwork with me, including the Fourth of July prints. They used the occasion to form a discussion group, with the clients seeing the images and imagining what the stories were behind them. One of the clients, viewing an image of a colander full of cooked ravioli, was convinced that it was a bowl of nuts. I decided that the image of a bowl of mixed nuts would be appropriate for the day, not to mention the staff and clients who worked there.

May 24, 1994

2008-05-24T06:32:00.001-07:00

During my trips home, I always brought a stack of woodblocks and my tools, so I could work on these prints while I was there. I cleared a section of the workbench in the basement to work on. On this day I found on the bench a small shoe polish tin that contained old coins, collected by my grandfather I believe. Mostly money from foreign lands, and the occasional token. The newest ones are from the 1920's and 30's. The oldest include a token from 1912 and some coins from the 1820's. All are very worn, so I doubt they have much value.

May 23, 1994

2008-05-23T05:03:00.001-07:00

Going through a toll booth on the Garden State Parkway. No record or memory of where I was going to.

May 22, 1994

2008-05-22T07:25:00.001-07:00

I went up to Montclair State to participate in a psychological experiment. It seems that the sister of one of the Hackensack clients was doing some grad work at Montclair, and needed some volunteers to take a test. My father figured I'd be a good volunteer, since I was at that moment staying just a few miles from campus, so I made an appontment to meet with her. The test, which I think involved looking at slides and choosing multiple choice response options, was in the new building on campus, constructed a few years earlier in what had been the only student parking lot in the center of campus when I first started going to school there

May 21, 1994

2008-05-21T05:14:00.001-07:00

Another item I picked up at the mall the day before was a new wallet, as the one I had been using was coming apart at the seams. On this day I did the transfer of contents from the old wallet to the new one.

May 20, 1994

2008-05-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

My typical footwear of choice is sturdy work shoes- good for my need to spend much of my time on my feet, not to mention in situations (like many artists) where extra foot protection is a necessity . But eventually they wear out and need to be replaced. Shopping options in Carbondale were a bit limited, so I used my time in New Jersey to check out what was available at Willowbrook Mall. Success- I replaced an old pair, with the uppers starting to split from completely worn soles, with a new pair.

May 19, 1994

2008-05-19T05:12:00.001-07:00

One of the things I always had to get adjusted to back in New Jersey was the supermarkets. All the ones in Carbondale were large, bright, spacious buildings, with wide aisles and few customers. On this day I went to the local Shop Rite, built decades ago during the first wave of supermarkets, with aisles so narrow that two carts would struggle to pass, dingy floors, and crowds of customers. And this was typical of most of the local supermarkets. A few years after this, a much larger modern replacement was put up next to it, and the original torn down.

May 18, 1994

2008-05-18T11:24:00.001-07:00

I had stopped for the night at a motel outside Youngstown, and after breakfast and gassing up, got back on the interstate heading east. Almost immediately I saw the sign for I-80 and destination New York City. Though at this point I was still almost 400 miles from home, seeing the sign for New York and getting on I-80 (which would take me to within just a few miles from my parents house) was the moment I always felt like I was getting close.

May 17, 1994

2008-05-17T07:03:00.001-07:00

Filling my gas tank for the ride home to New Jersey. This was probably in Kentucky, my usual eastbound stop in LaGrange for lunch and gas.

May 16, 1994

2008-05-16T05:09:00.001-07:00

Moving Erin Palmer's couch. When Erin was hired for the previous fall, she moved into a house belonging to another professor in the department, who was away for the year. Now she was getting a place of her own, and John Siblik and I (and his truck) were talked into helping her move some bulky items from one place to the other.

May 15, 1994

2008-05-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

Grading the GEC class for final grades. The portion of the gradebook that kept track of attendance looked like this- X meant the student was in class that day. Other symbols covered absences, excused absences, and late for class.

May 14, 1994

2008-05-14T04:04:00.001-07:00

Hanging out on the deck outside my apartment and talking with Jack, a neighbor who lived on the top floor of my building.

May 13, 1994

2008-05-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

Pouring beer from a tap on a keg. At this point I can't remember exactly what the occasion was. Perhaps a post-semester party at someone's house.

May 12, 1994

2008-05-12T05:17:00.001-07:00

I get a copy of David Lasky's Boom Boom #1 in the mail. Dave and I went to college together, and shortly after graduation we collaborated on a number of comic related ventures, which went nowhere. I concentrated on my graduate art education (and woodcuts), while Dave pursued comics. He published many of these under the title Boom Boom, first a series of quarter page sized photocopied mini-comics, then a series of half page sized photocopied minis with 2 color card stock covers. Now he had gotten a deal to be professionally published, a full sized 24 page black and white comic printed on newsprint with glossy full color covers. Not only did the format look great, the story was by far his strongest work to date in both writing and art.

May 11, 1994

2008-05-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

Stephanie gets a tattoo. Stephanie was a senior art major, one who would occasionally hang out with the grads. On this day Suzanne was giving her a ride to a tattoo shop, where she would be getting a small tattoo of her own design. I was invited to come along, and having nothing better to do, agreed. The tattoo (seen upside down) was a small lizard/amphibian (purple I think) on her thigh. It didn't take long, and she was happy with the results.

May 10, 1994

2008-05-10T06:36:00.001-07:00

There was an annular solar eclipse this day around noon in my part of the world. Laura decided to try viewing it through her welder's mask, assuming anything that could protect her eyes from a close up acetylene torch could protect her from the sun. I don't know if that's true, but it sounded reasonable. Meanwhile, Armen constructed a basic pinhole projector. It was working well, so he punched a few more pinholes and he had multiple eclipses going on the cardboard screen. Once the main excitement was over, I left him in the Glove Factory parking lot and took a walk toward the glass house. The still partially eclipsed sun gave the sky a kind of surreal quality- bright blue, but at the same time dark like a thunderstorm was passing over.

May 9, 1994

2008-05-09T05:32:00.001-07:00

Usually I would pay my bills by mailing off a check, but one exception was my electric bill. I would walk up to the local branch of CIPS (the regional utility), which was up the Strip, past the center of town, and in kind of an industrial district. I would pass the high voltage transformers and other equipment on my way into the building to pay my bill.

May 8, 1994

2008-05-08T07:20:00.001-07:00

Brian's perfect canvas. Grad student Brian was stretching a canvas (that's a staplegun in the upper left corner), I think as an assistantship for a professor, since he wasn't doing many canvas paintings at that time.

May 7, 1994

2008-05-07T06:48:00.001-07:00

A sleepless night.

May 6, 1994

2008-05-06T19:49:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about my time in the Midwest was access to top quality barbecue. A few miles away in Murphysboro there was the legendary 17th Street Bar & Grill, winner of countless pork rib competitions on the local, national, and international level, and by far the best ribs I've ever had. However, some people didn't even think they were the best ribs in that town, and the main rival was the Midland Inn. On this night I went there for ribs with one of my fellow art students. Better than anything ever found in my home state, but not quite as tasty as the ones on 17th Street.

May 5, 1994

2008-05-05T05:05:00.001-07:00

I spotted Laura R., one of the seniors in the 2D program, walking around with this odd collection of items on her back. It was a small backpack, and it included a variety of sticks, and a very large rolled up drawing, which stuck up well over her head.

May 4, 1994

2008-05-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

Sheryl Ellinwood's Blue House. Sheryl was in the MFA program for glass, and the instructor for the beginning glass class I was taking, resulting in a case of one grad student teaching a class with some other grad students in it. Well, she certainly knew a whole lot more about glass than we did. Sheryl was in her last semester, and this week was her MFA exhibition at the Mitchell Museum at Faner Hall. I routinely went to see the MFA shows, and certainly would for people I knew. The gallery was fairly dark, using spotlights to highlight her mixed media sculptures, such as this one in the shape of a peaked roof structure.

May 3, 1994

2008-05-03T06:46:00.001-07:00

The premiere of my animated 4th of July film, along with all the other films made by students for the experimental film class. As I have never owned a 16mm projector, it would also be the first time I'd see it. I was hoping to make it longer, include all the days up through the end of April, but the time consuming nature of drawing 24 frames per second, meant I only got up to the end of November, about 5 months worth of prints. Even with my opening and closing credits, that meant the whole film was barely over a minute. It was so short, that by the time they finished focusing it, it was pretty much over, so it was run a second time. I was pleased with the results, and it got a good response from the class and professor.

I modelled the image on the Varsity Theater on the strip, a typical Main Street type theater that every town of significant size used to have, now most closed by competition with multiplexes. This one also closed a few years ago, but at least the building will be refurbished and used as a home base for local theater companies and other arts uses.

May 2, 1994

2008-05-02T05:22:00.001-07:00

I opened up the Daily Egyptian and found something interesting in the Police Blotter column- the names of 3 of my current students, one from my 2D class and two from the same section of one of my GEC classes. I had one of the students in common with another grad instructor, who revealed that the 4th student in the "gang" was in one of her classes. It involved a mugging, but they were caught trying to use checks taken from the student. One student (the girl in the middle represented by the elaborate hair style that she and her identical twin--also in my class--shared) missed no classes, bailed out by the twin I guess. Another (guy on right with the shiny gold accessories (I don't think the word "bling" hadn't been coined yet) missed one class, but I excused it when he came to the next meeting with copies of his various court papers. (the first time, but not the last, that I excused a student absence because they were incarcerated) The third student on the left (wearing the mask he had recently made for a class project) never returned to class. I ran into him several months later in a liquor store on the Strip, where he apologized for not finishing the semester, without naming the reason. For what it's worth, he seemed to be in the liquor store to buy something, not to rob it.

May 1, 1994

2008-05-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

The first day of May, a month traditionally dedicated to Mary in the Catholic Church. This Madonna and Child image was borrowed from a medallion, the kind that we used to be encouraged to wear in May when I was a kid in Catholic school.

April 30, 1994

2008-04-30T07:09:00.001-07:00

The day of the annual Cardboard Boat Regatta. This was a class requirement for the 3D Foundations class at SIU every spring, a major campus event for all students (any student could participate), and a regional news story for national television networks. The rules were that boats could be made from corrugated cardboard, glue, and waterproofing materials, decorated in any way you want, but not metal fasteners allowed of any kind. Also, all boats had to participate in at least one race around the campus lake. (life vests and a motor boat were employed to help out those students whose boats proved unseaworthy) Trophies were awarded in various categories- design, racing ability, most spectacular sinking, etc. Some boats were small, some large enough to have a crew of several students. The one in the image was a Viking style boat in the shape of dragon, tail at least 10 feet tall, the head about 8 feet high when attached, with a crew of at least 4, constructed by my former student Amy Kucharik.

April 29, 1994

2008-04-29T22:00:00.001-07:00

I took an afternoon nap, and when I woke up I had an intense craving for a hamburger. So I went to the nearest place that I could buy a hamburger, Sam's Cafe (a place on the strip that specialized in middle eastern food), and bought one. I devoured it instantly, satisfying my need.

April 28, 1994

2008-04-28T05:21:00.000-07:00

My old boots, pulled out on a particularly rainy day. I had gotten these boots when I was in 8th grade, for hiking and other Scout activities. They ended up lasting about 25 years, and might still be in use if the padded collars around the tops hadn't ripped away from the uppers.

April 27, 1994

2008-04-27T09:36:00.001-07:00

A national day of mourning for Richard Nixon. Nixon had died several days earlier, but with presidents, it takes more than a few days to prepare a funeral, which was held on this day. Nixon was the first president that I was aware of, and that was mostly because of the incessant tv news stories about Watergate, though it would be years later before I knew what all the fuss was about.

April 26, 1994

2008-04-26T06:45:00.001-07:00

Another ceramics sale. Manning the booth on this day was Mi Wu, print student and occasional Chinese translator. She suggested that I buy the mug shown on the left. I saw the 3 round red shapes as tomatoes, so I agreed to spend a few dollars for the odd rounded bottom mug. I also bought the one next to it.

April 25, 1994

2008-04-25T05:27:00.001-07:00

I went to the Newman Center to see the display of pieces of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. The quilt was started in the late 80's, a collection of 3' x 6' panels, not necessarily involving traditional quilting techniques, but all involving a cloth base and a variety of applied materials, each meant to honor someone who died from the disease. The panels are sewn together into 12' x 12' blocks, and several of these blocks were on display in the main room of the center, the rows of chairs used for Mass having been all put away. Volunteers in shifts took turns reading aloud from a list of names of those who had died from AIDS. Next to each block was a box of tissues, I assumed for those overcome with emotion.

April 24, 1994

2008-04-24T06:40:00.001-07:00

Sifting sand. I was in the process of working on my final project in my glass class, which would be a mixed media sculpture. One part of it would be a cast glass shape. A sand mold is made by sifting sand into a large wood box, so that it's loosely piled in the box. Then the object that will be used to make the mold is pressed firmly into the sand, hard packing it around the original piece. After removing the original, molten glass is poured into the vacated space, taking the shape of the original object.

April 23, 1994

2008-04-23T05:46:00.001-07:00

In the cold shop at the Glass House, using the cerium wheel to polish the bottom of a glass, having already ground it flat and smooth.

April 22, 1994

2008-04-22T21:22:00.001-07:00

Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials play a free show as part of the spring Dawg Days festival. Before the show I had him autograph my copy of their first album. Ed was pleasantly surprised to see that I had it on vinyl, which gave him a much larger cover to sign than a compact disc would.

April 21, 1994

2008-04-21T05:00:00.001-07:00

In the hot shop on my class day. While I was reheating my piece in the gloryhole, another student was using a ladle to pour molten glass into a sand mold.

April 20, 1994

2008-04-20T14:45:00.001-07:00

A present for Kendra. I was walking on the Strip and saw this dead baby bird chick on the sidewalk. I decided to save it, scooping it into a plastic bag I had on me, and I brought it to the Glove Factory, where I later gave it to grad painter Kendra Kennedy. This might seem like an odd thing to do, but at the time she was working with a lot of similiar images, and I figured she might make use of the reference. I don't remember if she actually made use of it or not, but my recollection is that she was not upset at my present.

April 19, 1994

2008-04-19T06:53:00.001-07:00

Installing an Illinois license plate on my car. My first year in Carbondale I retained all my New Jersey car related situations- license/registration/insurance/inspection. (this is legal for full time students from out of state) I had been told that my NJ based insurance company would lower my rates considerably, since my car was now located out of New Jersey. This turned out not to be the case. So I went out and got auto insurance from an Illinois based agent of a national insurance company, saved about 2/3 of what I would have paid. Toward the end of my second year, I decided to complete the transition and convert my driver's license and registration to Illinois. This both saved me money and meant that I wouldn't have to waste half a day getting my car inspected on my summer trip home (or any other time since downstate Illinois required no auto inspections). The process was made extremely simple by the fact that the local DMV was usually empty. On the day I went to take care of this I was the only customer, a big change from NJ where getting anything done at the DMV usually meant waiting in multiple lines and a minimum of about 2 hours. It took me about 20 minutes to get my new plates, take the Illinois written driver's test, and have a new photo license produced. Back home, I put on my new plates and registration sticker.

April 18, 1994

2008-04-18T05:53:00.001-07:00

I was sitting on my deck in the late afternoon, when I saw a police car drive up my street. It stopped, parked, and the officer got out and started looking at my car, parked on the street just in front of my apartment. I asked him what his interest in my car was, and he said he saw the window was broken. Sure enough, the driver's side window was completely shattered. I hadn't noticed because I had recently arrived home from the other direction (teaching at the blue barracks that day). We never did figure out what happened exactly (I thought maybe something related to the junior high across the street, like a rock kicked up by the lawn mower), nothing was stolen, but then I had nothing to steal. I moved the car to back parking lot and covered the window with plastic until I get get it replaced a few days later.

April 17, 1994

2008-04-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

Exhausted, crashing in a chair in the hallway at Pulliam, away from the heat of the hot shop.

April 16, 1994

2008-04-16T06:54:00.000-07:00

A hand stamp from Hangar 9, a bar on the strip that I went to when there was a good band playing. Tonight it was the Bustelos, which included remnants from the former Black Mamba, which had been my favorite local band and had their final show the previous October.

April 15, 1994

2008-04-15T21:41:00.001-07:00

At an art reception, someone was playing a very large drum. The body of it was made of ceramic, with a standard drum head on it. I'm not sure why it was there, but it was loud.

April 14, 1994

2008-04-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

A large steel sculpture by art grad Steve Peters was installed by Altgeld Hall on campus. Steve specialized in the large welded scrap steel style of sculpture. He was unusual in that he hung out a lot with the 2D grads, while most of the sculpture/industrial arts grads pretty much kept to themselves (or at least away from us).

April 13, 1994

2008-04-13T07:02:00.000-07:00

My small kitchen sink very full of dirty dishes, pots, and pans. Washing dishes has always been my least favorite bit of domestic activity, but the one that had to be done the most often. At least here is was April. It was far worse in the summer, when the air conditioning was no help against the combination of humid air and hot soapy water.

April 12, 1994

2008-04-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

Laura the sculptor had applied to a number of grad schools, but to this point had gotten rejections. I ran into her downstairs in the Glove Factory, and she mentioned being on the waiting list for one school, and expected to hear from the last one any minute. I went up to my studio to do some work. A little later she came upstairs and said she just heard from the last school- another rejection. She saw a wooden chair in the corner of my studio and decided to sit down. Before I could warn her the chair wasn't stable (unglued, basically just leaning together, strong enough to hold stack of papers and not much else), she sat on it, and it collapsed immediately, dropping her to the floor. Luckily, she saw the humor in the situation. I told her that I was sure that somehow everything would work out for her. She went home, but came back that evening with good news- the mail brought a letter from the school that had put her on the waiting list, and she was now admitted to their MFA program. The quote from Job seemed a good way to sum up the day's events.

April 11, 1994

2008-04-11T08:01:00.001-07:00

Laying in bed, woken up by the clock radio, tuned to the local classic rock station.

April 10, 1994

2008-04-10T08:11:00.001-07:00

In the hot shop on Sunday, doing some steam sticking. This is a little trick to help puff out the volume of a vessel. A wooden cone is kept in a bucket of water, so that it's completely waterlogged. The vessel is attached by a punty on the bottom, and allowed to cool to the point where it isn't completely slumping, but not so cool that it can't still be worked. The piece is hung upsided down from a rack, open end down, and the saturated cone is inserted into the opening, until it seals the opening. The intense heat of the glass immediately vaporizes the water in the wood, creating steam which pushes out the sides.

April 9, 1994

2008-04-09T07:42:00.001-07:00

Print professor Joel Feldman and his then wife Cheonae Kim had simultaneous solo shows at a non-profit gallery space in St Louis, the Forum for Contemporary Art. I decided to go the opening on this night, driving a few other grads in my car. The show was good, but a huge storm blew in on the way home. My car temporarily stalled out after driving through unavoidable deep water, but I eventually found my way back to the interstate and into Illinois. The way home was a long drive on an unlighted 2 lane country road, much at low speed because of the visibility problems caused by the heavy rain and lack of light. (except for the frequent lightning) My image for the night was the storm I drove through in the big sky flat lands, before the rain eased up a little and I hit the undulating hills of the river valley country.

April 8, 1994

2008-04-08T20:28:00.001-07:00

Watched a car go the wrong way up a one-way street.

April 7, 1994

2008-04-07T05:10:00.001-07:00

I was in the first floor hall of the Allyn building, talking to one of the faculty, when I noticed a very young child (belonging to that faculty), attempting to insert a key into an electric outlet. I alerted the parent to the situation. In this particular case, I knew that the outlet was so painted over that insertion was impossible, but I figured that they would want to stop this kind of experimentation now, before a more accessible outlet was tried.

April 6, 1994

2008-04-06T05:48:00.001-07:00

Spring semester review. Every semester all the grad students had to meet with all the faculty from their area and present their work. In my case it was the 2D faculty- drawing, painting, printmaking. It allowed all those who didn't have me in class to see what I was up to, and the group would question me about the work and advise me, though they didn't always agree on what I should do. Usually we did this in the clean room, but with about 9 months of this series up on my studio wall, the group convened in my studio space.

April 5, 1994

2008-04-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

Experimental film history class. We watched a film whose title and creator I have since forgotten, but it intermixed various images, including what seemed to be a boat quiz.

April 4, 1994

2008-04-04T05:00:00.001-07:00

I sign my summer contract. It was for another GEC studio class, one that met for four hours once a week, for four weeks. That meant I had to do the equivalent of 2 or 3 regular projects in each class.

April 3, 1994

2008-04-03T07:37:00.001-07:00

Easter Sunday. After my radio show, I went to the glass studio and created my largest glass piece, a free form multicolor vase. One of the two best things I made in that class.

April 2, 1994

2008-04-02T08:17:00.001-07:00

An unusual sight- some ducks walking along the side of Route 51, near the Blue Barracks.

April 1, 1994

2008-04-01T21:25:00.001-07:00

Good Friday. Part of a Good Friday service is the veneration of the cross. People process up and either kiss the cross or genuflect in front of it.

March 31, 1994

2008-03-31T05:15:00.001-07:00

Geryll had a new play, and this one had a small speaking role for grad painter Suzanne, one of two employees in a shop, who were there mostly to react to the action involving the main character.

March 30, 1994

2008-03-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

I was walking on the Strip with fellow art grad Suzanne and we passed an odd looking guy- unshaven, an eyepatch, barely shuffling along moving toward us. After we passed each other, he turned and made a comment about Suzanne's appearance. While what he said was technically accurate, it was still very rude. She was more amused than insulted.

March 29, 1994

2008-03-29T04:47:00.001-07:00

Jed Jackson asked me to cover his GEC lecture sections that day. This was the same class I had taught the previous summer, in the same room, but a few things were different. First, I had to work with his planned lecture, not mine. Second, I had maybe 40 students total in my summer class, but now almost all the 300 seats were filled. I learned a little something myself. A student asked me at the beginning of the first section a question about the return of the recent exam and I gave him the information that Jed asked me to pass on... and about half the students immediately got up and left. When a student asked me the same question at the beginning of the second section, I told them that I'd have the information for them at the end of the class period. Whether it was that or something else I don't know, but they all pretty much stayed through the entire class.

March 28, 1994

2008-03-28T04:50:00.000-07:00

One of the legacies of having a studio in a building previously used as a factory is that there is occasionally evidence of the previous occupants. In the case of my assigned studio space, that meant a 3 inch diameter hole in my floor, through to the studios below. Probably made to allow a pipe to pass through in its previous life. It sat by the edge of the wall, where it was generally of no consequence. On this night, however, a problem. The first floor was assigned to 3D students, figuring they would be less able to move all their materials upstairs. Someone down there was making an ungodly racket, cutting and/or grinding metal. Probably Steve Peters working on one of his fabricated steel constructions. I'm not saying it would have been silent if my floor had no holes, but I think the noise would have been at least a little more muffled.