Ode to Spring - Scraps

"Lot's Wife", 2005, enamel, salt and pastel on masonite
Cropped from original 10" x 10"

It's been a gorgeous couple of days and it has improved the mood beyond measure. Spring in Chicago is like having a plaster hip-cast removed. You feel physically lighter and more flexible. A troublesome itch can be scratched. Tasks pass more easily.

I'm leading a tour on William Le Baron Jenney for the Society of Architectural Historians - Chicago Chapter next Saturday. We'll have a reception at the end of the tour at the Columbia College Center for Book & Paper Arts which is located in his Luddington Building - one of Jenney's important works.

Today, we met with Bill Drendel who is the Exhibitions Coordinator for the Caxton Club and he gave us a tour of the studios at Columbia College. We saw an outstanding collection of historic vernacular wood type and bindings.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Being in the paper-making studio was nostalgic for me. I spent six months in 1985, making paper casts of a slab of the Parthenon frieze under Frank Gallo's supervision. It was a very independent project that took place in a freezing garret of Lincoln Hall at the U. of I. - Urbana.

Frank Gallo and me pretending to work. I remember he just said something hillarious.

Frank had a marvellous sense of humor and viewed himself as an outlaw artist. He had a wild sense of humor and really tested the boundaries of political correctness. He saw himself as bad but he was a lovable teddy bear. Here's his bio and here are good images of his work.

Frank's initial commercial breakthrough as an artist depended on a masterful casting of his female nudes in bas relief's in epoxy resin - material which has a lovely semi-transluscent property like ivory or human skin.

Copyright Frank Gallo

Tragically, the epoxy turned out to be extremely toxic and Gallo suffered permanent neurological damage but he prevailed. He bounced back in a big way by adapting his style to his new invention - paper casting. He also really promoted the whole idea that Universities could teach "paper" as a curriculum which led to programs like the Columbia College Center.

Gallo's paper cast from a frieze designed by Wright for Dana House

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++