Time heals...

It has been almost a year since my angry entry regarding the Lundvall's trophy donation to UNC. A couple of weeks ago I went to the UC and saw the bear in the plastic case with two plexiglas signs that credited the donors. The bear is small. It's a beautifully mounted specimen that would look nice in a natural diorama.

I understand that Jerrold DeWitt was very proud of this gift to the university. There's no accounting for taste. Evidently, Mr. DeWitt is no longer employed by the UNC Foundation for reasons that should probably be left unmentioned in this public forum. At once I find myself coming up with the line "what goes around, comes around." And, am a little embarrassed at the same time for the Foundation and DeWitt.

The upside is that I met with Virgil Scott, the President of the UNC Foundation when I was in Greeley in August and accepted his apology for DeWitt's negative words about me. Mr. Scott was sincere and seems like a genuine person to me. I am grateful for the meeting.

Whether or not I'll be able to begin again to create the ReInCairnation (thanks to Lynn Karowsky for that title) to install my work in the University Center in Greeley remains to be seen. Mr. Scott took my proposal to Dr. Randy Haack at the university and after a brief phone call with Dr. Haack, I'm hoping to receive a positive response from him and the support of both the University and the UNC Foundation to do the installation.

It's been pointed out to me that tastes in art differ and, perhaps, my ideas are too much of a challenge for Greeley. Of course, I feel that any art that requires thought and attention as well as critical thinking is vital to our society. Recently, I was treated to a tour of the new Denver Museum of Contemporary Art where Damien Hirst's interpretation of the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian is on display. It's a shocking piece that instantly sent one of my friends out of the gallery. The importance of Hirst and his incredibly raw approach to art is obvious. If an artist can break new ground and be recognized by the arts community, then Art moves.. not necessarily forward.. but it moves.

Seeing the Hirst and admiring the sheer fortitude of the piece put me in an ethical dilemma. I have been critical of the stuffed bear in the University Center and at once admire the dead calf that Hirst is making waves with in the Arts Community. How does one dead animal trump another?

It is precisely this conundrum that makes me hope that I'll be invited by my alma mater to do another installation that calls up the memory of Totem Teddy. One person in this blog stated some time ago that students don't have time to stand in front of an artwork and try to figure it out. Those are the minds, it seems to me, that need the challenge most.

Why pierce the body of a dead calf with dozens of arrows and hang it by a cable in a huge vitrine? Why stuff a bear and put it in a plexiglas box? These questions are vital to our growth as intelligent human beings. If all we get are pat answers to any question we may come up with, then, all we have is rote learning ... Critical thinking, by its very nature, must take us beyond the simplicity of getting an answer right and moving on.

So. Why should the University of Northern Colorado honor its roots in remembering a hundred year old totem pole? Why should tradition be an integral part of our education? Why should we examine our aesthetics and our personal ethics? Simply, I believe, we need challenges in our lives which enable us to grow in more than just a linear pattern which puts us into society to do a job.

I'll never compare my artwork to Damien Hirst's. Whether his stuff is important or not has been taken up by the Arts Community around the world. I find it at once startling and wonderful. Disturbing. All I want my work, at least on the UNC campus, to do is garner a little attention and have students, alumni, faculty, administration and staff aware that the Bear Tradition blossomed from one basic seed. If we take our tradition to heart and have a good feeling about it, I've done my job.

Of course, getting anyone else to care is the challenge. All I want from my alma mater is cooperation. Actual support would be nice. Funding would be wonderful.

Ideas?