a chronology of my 37 year career; This is a lecture designed for general population undergrad students and has presented at The University of Minnesota and 13 other colleges and art centers

1. LINKS IN A CHAIN The search for significance in the contemporary art landscape As an American Artist trained in the mid 1970’s I have searched for a sense of meaning, lets call it significance, in the practice of the visual arts. This is a short story of what that journey has meant to me.

2. THE BEGINING The Stevens Gallery co-op Gallery, Minneapolis Minnesota 1975 Conceptual Art, Earth Art, Kinetic Art, Performance Art, Feminist Art, Pluralism, These are some of the key concepts that swirled about within the dialog of Contemporary Art And as a young art student I understood and became well versed within these various idioms. But I felt lost I felt that I needed more I needed to feel connected to art history and at the same time I needed to own my personal voice. To find my unique self.

3. ARCHITECTURE I grew up in Chicago When I was Student at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design I asked my college professor ,AribertMunzner, how to reconcile my feelings of disconnected disinterest in contemporay art dialog with my desire to be a part of the larger art dialog. He asked me what I did when I was 4 years old. Well I grew up in Chicago and so of course as little kid I used to make cities, and buildings. I drew them, I molded them in clay, I built little skyscrapers with sticks, that’s what I did, I played city. All the time, and I was happy.

4. EREHWON 1975-76 Minneapolis College of Art and Design Munzner suggested that the key to finding my place within the contemporary art world would not be found in pursuite of the multiple isms and art paths I studied within my formal art training but rather the key was hidden deep within my own personal history. It was hidden within the things I made when I was 4 years old. He told me to go to my studio and make one building. I went back and I made a single small scale wax building and I returned a week latter. Professor Munzner smiled and instructed me, “ now go make 10. “ I did. The next week he uped the count to 100 and as time went by I ended up creating a huge imaginary city that I called Erehwon. It was 30 feet long and 15 feet wide and it held thousands of structures each with its own story.

5. ErEhwon 33 feet long 12 feet wide 1975-76 wax When it was complete it had become a legendary piece of art and It was well loved across the spectrum of the art community centered around the College as well within the wider community. I had created a work of art which had no pretension no desire to fit into the dialog all around but which represented my personal vision. Add on

6. ISLE REFUGEE 1976 wax about 16 feet long and 8 feet wide

7. Blue Point 1977 about 4 feet long

8. Pentalandia at night 1976-77 collection The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota 20 feet across

9. Pentalandia at sunset When displayed it has an elaborate light show that tracks the course of the sun

10. Teaching is important for all artists It helps us verbalize the unexplainable Or not

11. Mighty mississippi Collection The Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance company, St Paul Minnesota 1981

12. DETAIL MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI 44 feet long 4 feet tall encaustic map Saint Louis Missouri

13. Allyn Robert Thompson Gallery Minneapolis 1985 An interactive social sculpture 24 feet long

14. GLOBE A collaboration with Remo Compopiano 1985 encaustic Exhibited at the Minnesota Museum of Art 1986

15. History of architecture Opus Corporate headquarters, Edina Minnesota 1986 24 feet long encaustic

16. General mills 1984 encaustic 6 feet tall

17. Loring suite 6@ 24 x 24 cast resin chronology of the neighborhood Collection Peoples Art Committee, Loring Park, 1987 Minneapolis Minnesota

18. Loring 1800 The begining

19. Loring 1920 The first built city surrounds the pond

20. Loring 1960 The city is in its second development

21. My fathers fathersfathers house Cast resin 24 x24 1987 Private collection

22. Falls in blue Cast resin 1987 Private collection

23. Falls in green Cast resin 1987 Private collection

24. APPROPRIATION DUERER The gift of the magi one of 6 1989 11 inches tall ceramic

25. Appropriation Giovanni Batista Moroni Count SeccoSuardi one of 6 1989 10 inches tall ceramic

26. lamp I only made about 200 I made ceramic lamps for about 4 years and they sold very well but I got bored and moved on

27. symbol 1989 bronze about 2 feet long Private collection 1989

28. Gloria civita 200 CE The history of rome created and destroyed and created again on a 12 x 12 foot base involving performances and thousands of buildings 1985-1991

29. Gloria Civita 200 BCE As it was in 1989

30. Gloria Civita The year 0

31. Gloria Civita Its final location, Avon Minnesota 1991

32. Gloria Civita 1500 CE

33. The Water Front Ceramic 1990 1 foot long designed to be displayed on a wall

34. Roccastrada One of 9 scultpures created on my return from study in Italy 1992 about 3 feet long

35. This River This Place The lobby of the Ninth Federal Reserve District, Minneapolis ,Minnesota 1997 35 feet long

36. This River This Place Some of the 270 unfired 20 inch long and 20 inch deep blocks used in its creation

37. The Edmund Fitzgerald This River This Place each block tells a unique story from thr 9th federal district

38. The Twin Cities Collection Lindquist and Vennum PA, Minneapolis Minnesota 1995 About 12 feet long ceramic

39. NityGrity City Collection Merchant and Gould Pa, Minneapolis Minnesota 1996 Concrete about 8 feet long One of 36 corporate commissions

40. The Original Garden Lights Towers are about 2 feet tall and they light up These were created in editions of 45 multiples of 12 styles They are garden sculptures created between 1991 and 2001

41. Womans river About two feet long ceramic 2002

42. Map of sixth street stroll A collection of 23 bronze sculptures installed along a two block long city walkway in Minneapolis Minnesota 2000

43. Exhibition hall tower About 2 feet tall bronze one of the 23 sixth street stroll pieces

44. St Anthony main 6thsteet stroll

45. Our Lady of Lourdes 6th street stroll

46. Mill City Dance Designed for the cedar riverside LRT station and installed as a 150 foot long public art work each tower about 10 feet tall 2002 steel

47. BABYLON The 4th tower

48. Lobby California building gallery I ran the gallery from 2002 until 2008 Babylon was created here

49. Babylon in the Sumerian era Babylon like Gloria Civita was an extended performance and narrative sculpture creating and destroying and re-creating a history of Mesopotamia present day Iraq It was a war protest

50. Babylon in its studio The project had a dedicated studio between 2002 and 2008

51. Babylon Akkad the 4th city layer upon layer of history the piece is documented in numerous news items videos pictures and a narative

52. Babylon Each phase of the project was based in the history of the region of present day Iraq it’s a long story 12000 years at least

53. babylon Yes I really did destroy all I had made and every year I rebuilt on the ruins of my previous work Just like reality

54. babylon After the destruction there were 5 ceremonial destructions of 5 key empires the war is unending and the US invasion was only one of many attempts to subdue the region.

55. babylon Students are baffled. Creation and destruction share the same stage

56. babylon It was a very large piece

57. babylon The map shows the area occupied by Babylon its 20 feet long

58. Babylon in its last incarnation The central tower is 7 feet tall Babylon will reappear in July 2010 at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design Gallery as part of the McKnight fellowship Exhibition

59. babylon The thesis is that the war in Iraq was only the most recent assault on this mother root culture

60. babylon The destruction events were very elaborate more than 10,000 people visited Babylon in its life span

61. Babylon Detail inside detail inside detail inside detail

62. But then again There’s the rent

63. Venetian tower Garden towers continue even now

64. lucca With a bit more color

65. Saint marks My people like their land marks

66. petrosinella And the all time favorite is????? Its not all serious ya know?

67. You cant get there from here Once I found these cool rocks in the black hills This one is about 14 inches tall

68. Catheedral rock And sometimes its just pretty and yummy

69. Square map I still love my maps This one is about 16 inches long

70. confluence They are ceramic now but its really the same idea as the wax ones done in the 70’s This one is 30” long

71. The exchange in chicago I draw every day and now when I travel I take a drawing kit with Study is important This one is 24 inches tall

72. Cass gilbert And I still have my hero’s

73. Fire dance Drawing lets me experiment with new ideas

74. Foshay Sunday morning I love to draw in the early morning light and on Sunday morning the cities are empty

75. Foshay color study The Sunday drawings lead to many spinoffs and I can play with form and color

76. italianate I am constantly creating new designs This one is part of an edition of multiples Its about 16 inches tall

77. Three tier I am learning to get very tall this one is 6 feet tall and the collector who owns it put it in a skyscraper apartment in Chicago I feel like I am coming home

78. wilshire After I closed the gallery and studio I left Minneapolis to wander other cities

79. Red I am always learning and I simply follow my art

80. Blue Los Angeles I find kilns in cities I visit and I am free to create It’s a blast

81. The wigley building As in drawing I study real structures but I will never get it straight I am in the same place I was back in 1974 maybe even 1964

82. MASTeRY With technical, conceptual and intellectual mastery One can extend the lessons learned in life or the arts

83. Teaching teachers When artists are teachers and teachers are students the chain is formed linking us to a past extending back 12000 years and if one student or one artist is influenced by our actions then we become significant as a link in the chain of continuity.

84. 100 teachers “CIVITAS URBANUS” My next massive work will teach 100 teachers who will each instruct 100 students in so doing they will produce 10,000 iconic metaphorical representations of people as architectural representations. “civitas” the city of living people” forming a city of artistic evidence “urbanus, the city of brick” a city of content and meaning linked to the ancient past and pointing into a distant future.

85. But that’ okay Because I know I am one of a million not one in a million and that defines significance.