Rooting Interest

A few weeks ago I posted my annual list of colleges that had in common that they were part of the current NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and had hosted me and/or my artwork at some point in the past. Sadly, all four teams had been eliminated by the end of the first weekend. And my brackets are a mess, with every one of my Final Four teams eliminated by yesterday. However, I do have a team that I'm going to root for in the next round- Virginia Commonwealth University.

Way way back, before there was a web or internet, I was a student down at the College of William and Mary, a public university in the Virginia state system. One of the oldest schools in the United States and known in academia for being very competitive both to get into, and to get through. And though it has (I've been told) the oldest college Fine Arts program in the country (1779) it wasn't considered a great one by Virginia standards. (I don't know if it was just a coincidence, but no process that was invented after 1779, such as photography, lithography, or silkscreen, was taught there in my years) On occasion I'd be asked by other students why I had chosen W&M, instead of VCU, which I learned was generally regarded as the state's best art program. Simple enough- I had no intention of being an art major when I started there, and did no research into those areas. Anyway, no regrets about that; I got a first class general education, enough art instruction to get me to the next level, and I can't imagine that I'd necessarily be a better artist today if I took a different path.

But seeing VCU on its tournament run (W&M is one of 5 or 6 schools in the US that have played division 1 basketball for at least 50 years without ever being in the tournament) the past couple of weekends reminded me of those college days. And after looking into it, I find that their art program listed as one of the best of the country by arguably the best known college ranking service, with other majors' rankings falling to numbers that are respectable, though not noteworthy. So if I can't root for a school that has exhibited or collected my prints, at least I can root for a school that's known more for its art department than anything else taught there.

And the photos up top? Very old photos of fun in the William and Mary printmaking studio, circa 1989. I believe it was Sandy who had wanted to try to fry eggs on the studio hot plate, which is normally used to heat etching plates for a variety of intaglio processes. My pan never got hot enough, so Dave came up with plan B, using the propane blowtorch normally used to melt rosin dust onto zinc etching plates (for aquatints) to cook the eggs, which I ate afterwards. Not the best eggs I ever ate, but not the worst either.