Artistic Connections

I've been interested in light and it's effects for several decades. The precursor to my M.A. thesis exhibition was an installation I did in "blacklight" upstairs in the Art Dept. about 1980. The visiting artist at the time was James Surls, the highly regarded Texas artist. As part of the M.A. program, I was required to invite him to review my installation. My mentoring instructor, Tom Askman, had already reviewed the installation and needless to say, he didn't give me a very favorable review. Surls on the other hand, loved the piece and suggested I present it to a wider audience in Spokane. Hence, I rented the Armory facility, 3 stories and approx. 100k sq. ft. and had four installation artists, ten performance artists and five bands play for my M.A. thesis event. Over 800 people attended the one night event.

My installation was all in black light and 1/2" plexiglass sculptures. The audio track in the 40' x 80' room was by David Byrne, "Remain in Light" and "My Life in the Bush of Ghost". Now, some twenty odd years later, I still remain in the light. I hope you do too. It's the only place to be. I don't have any surviving picture from the original event, but here's one of me under my most recent piece with a working title: "Light of Budda".