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December 21, 2006
In Memoriam, Big Dawg- part 1
On Saturday we had the memorial gathering for John at The Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts. I managed to get some pictures before people arrived, but then I couldn't get any people pictures. Which is probably good, because the fact is I was talking to people the whole time, and lots of people came, which of course I was thankful for.
We had some truly spectacular flowers, arranged by Bill's (Bill who went totally above and beyond the call in helping arrange and orchestrate the entire affair, and to whom I am deeply indebted, and also to Katherine, without whom none of it would have been possible) friend whose name- as I recall- is Andy- at Italian Court Flowers. He knows from tasteful flowers, believe it. And plus, one thing about the Big Dawg that I knew for sure is he was not above throwing a flower or two on the scanner and using floral imagery in his art, so we needed dramatic, and Bill hooked us up. Big thanks again.
The framed photo of John was one that Katherine had taken last spring.
The flowers alone. When we were in the gallery, putting up artwork and photos of John in advance, I whispered to him. See? See how beautiful. This is for you. Because you are loved.
We set up a rather large and somewhat fragile book in a vitrine, it was an earlier piece that John made before I met him. Its hinged together shallow wooden boxes, like paintboxes, with translucent papers stretched over them, and all manner of gold leaf, and possibly oil paint, and definitely xerox transfers and shellac, and some nails. Its title is The Tomb of Louis XXX.
Here is a front view~
Its hard to do it any justice in photos.
In another area we had photos of the pets that John had had, including some pictures he took of himself with Marcel. Here it is blurry, and partially obscured by the other flower arrangement~
I thought it was fitting to include all the animals he loved. Of course Marcel kind of took over, in his inimitable way.
There was also a board of snapshots and family photos~
More later.
Posted by at December 21, 2006 07:54 PM
Comments
It looks like a lovely gathering.
Posted by: rob helpychalk at December 22, 2006 08:50 AM
Happy Whateverdays.
I think you are a brilliant writer.
Posted by: michael at December 23, 2006 02:58 PM
Hi Pippy,
I'm sorry for being so late getting thanks to you for the zines you sent. I like the selection very much. I have them in my office for people to look at right now. As it turns out there are a couple of people who remember John working here and strangely enough I talked to him a few times, but didn't make the connection before. Now that you've added some pictures I can remember his face. John was in another unit in the Technical Services Dept. I was working full time and going back to school part time trying to get my degree in illustration. So full time job plus studio classes = insanity. But what I remember talking to him about was the art dept. faculty. I'm sure he probably saw me coming and going with my portfolio. He also collected some of the books that were withdrawn for use in his work and I remember he offered me some. I don't remember how long he was here. There was a guy that he talked to a lot in the dept. whose name I can't recall but whose wife was getting her degree in painting. The way everything is interconnected is very cool. The art work shown above looks wonderful. I don't know what else to say except that it's terrible he left while so young, I'm sorry I didn't get to know him better. If anyone else has recollections of him I will share them with you. Thanks again. I love your recent pictures.
Posted by: Elizabeth at January 11, 2007 07:40 AM