General

General. That was the only title I could think of, at the time, for this sheet of drawings and notes. Made for the VS180B Word & Image studio in Spring 2002--a kind of cri de coeur as to what the course was about. Was about--that's a funny way to put it, for the classes were never about anything. Rather, an entering-in, a place of beginnings, of gradual connections, elisions--always having to do with the specifics of the person involved--but these things they had to discover for themselves--or for themselves as a group, with me as teacher, shepherd, guide. I'd work right alongside, sometimes--had a desk set up under the hanging lamp, paint supplies, brushes, cardboard, gesso, rags. A meaningful time.

Pete Voulkos (the wonderful bear-like Greek-American sculptor who taught at Berkeley for much of my early time here) used to do demonstrations in class--a couple of his assistants would throw large, perfectly formed clay platters--then Pete would step in, knock them around a bit, a smash here, a poke there, adding those unpredictably alive elements  that made each plate unique. (Just like each of us.) Pete always said he did his best work in these demonstrations. May well have been true--but Pete also protected himself with a beautifully gruff sense of irony.

For me, the painting in class was more a kind of participation--like taking a walk together, up the hill, where the street curves away toward Indian Rock, or the flowers on a magnolia tree stand out against the Berkeley rain.
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I still believe many of the things I wrote here. And I hope they've reached people. Drawings and words together like this seem to be my way. And I still love those early stories of James Joyce--the ones in Dubliners, Michael Fury, right at the end... Snow was general all over Ireland...


(for B, and for C)
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