February 1, 2022
At some point in the future, I will explain exactly why I made this particular post today. THe photographs were taken one morning in early January when I was walking on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, toward the Geisel Library. I was still about 15 minutes away when I saw this light “sculpture.”
UCSD does not have an art museum on its campus. All of the public art involves sculpture, curated for the past 40 years by Mary Beebe under the title of “The Stuart Collection.” As a major research institution, UCSD concentrates on medical technology and engineering; art is an afterthought. In fact, UCSD had been graduating students for over 15 years before the Stuart Collection was even started. Nevertheless, the visibility of the sculptures might tempt the casual visitor into expecting that somewhere among all the construction on the campus that seems to have doubled the number of its buildings in the past 20 years there must be tucked away some modest public gallery of paintings and fiber art with at least a small room set aside for installations and performance art. It would be a reasonable expectation, for it’s not as if experimental art is banished from its domain. Its art department’s faculty has included in the past such important figures as David and Eleanor Antin, both of whom I took courses with while I was a graduate student there. UCSD was known at one point as one of the few universities where one could get a MFA in performance art. Even in the absence of an outlet with a full complement of art on campus, you should make time for a visit if you’re in San Diego. The campus will give you a chance to get some exercise while you see art. Given the cost of parking at UCSD, I highly recommend parking on Holiday Court, a short uphill road near Villa La Jolla Drive, and then using the footbridge to access the campus.
https://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu
Twenty years ago, I was still a graduate student at UCSD. After passing my qualifying exams in the fall, 2000, I was finally making progress on the project that had motivated me to attend graduate school in the first place. I was working three-quarters time as a teaching assistant and grading assistant, however, and there were weeks when I did nothing else than teach and grade papers. Getting even an hour or two of research was very difficult. Somehow I got the dissertation done, though, and walking across campus for two weeks in January to do research at the Archive for New Poetry gave me a chance to be grateful for many things, not the least of which is my wife’s family. Vince, her one and only brother, is a materials engineer with a specialization in factors involving friction. I always enjoy telling friends that the next time you’re on a jet plane that is approaching its destination’s runway, you should think of Vince’s with appreciation, because he could well have worked on a project that involved that jet’s brakes. There is no stopping him, however. He rarely has use for brakes when it comes to celebrating the energy of the life force. He has a great love of dancing and music, and I am looking forward to attending a cajun music festival this summer with him and his friend Marcie.
In the meantime, I send him this “January Runway of Light” as a symbolic affirmation.
About Bill Mohr