Wednesday, January 19, 2005

John Kennedy and Loose Ends

Loose Ends
Tomorrow is Wednesday and I've decided that on Wednesdays I will catch up on any loose ends--missing links or photos, unanswered questions, unfinished stories and truly atrocious typos. Kick me if I miss something. There---a schedule is shaping up. Wednesdays for catching up and Thursdays for kicking.


John Kennedy (not JFK) Day in Palm Springs
Today was John Kennedy day. I spent it exactly the way I thought appropriate---in my apron, in my studio, working. John would have agreed. He's gone---but not. I work still with tools we used together. Pour waxes of my sculptures with the same wax I'd used for his. For nearly seven years I sculpted enlargements for John's bronzes. Lots of days we worked together quietly, contentedly. Some days we sat outside under his pepper trees, drinking wine and laughing the laughter of only those who share years of inside jokes. .A few days we screamed at each other. Once we glared at each other all day. Sometimes, I'm fairly certain, we hated each other equally. Sometimes we told each other secrets. Mostly, we worked, very hard.
John is gone but not for me. John was human. He was a mean bastard and a good friend, competitive, jealous, generous and tenderhearted, funny and impatient and fickle and savvy. He joked that I sculpted his work better than he did. Sometimes I felt I knew him better than he did. Only a very serious collector would discern my influence on John's work. Not so subtle for me. In retrospect, I can look back and see that there actually was a "John" period in my career.
Happy John's day

kennedysculpture.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loose ends, well, you DID say you were gonna talk about DragonCon. Yeah, you only mentioned a project you were going to do there, but all this talk of firey endings, you wouldn't just leave us hanging, would you?

lisa said...

Hello anonymous---I did answer you, eventually. You can always count on it---eventually.
One day I'll visit Atlanta again. You really have to be from the South to appreciate all of her layers. I am/do.