Sadness

Today I am very sad.

I received an email today stating that my major professor from undergraduate school isn't doing very well. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and has been fighting tooth and nail against it - but it sounds like he is losing the battle.

Charles was very instrumental in getting me into graduate school. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have gotten in. He believed in me at a time when others hadn't. Graduate school gave me hope, it was inspiring and it was very important in my development as an artist and person.

I have taken many paths and turns away from art, but it has always remained in my heart. My admiration for those things Celtic and sculptural really are because of Charles & George (my graduate school professor). Their influence on me has been extreme - yet they do not know it.

When I found out that Charles was sick, I wrote him a letter - thanking him for everything. He & his wife, Deborah, really do not know what it has meant to me to have them in my life - even if it was for a short time a long time ago. I think about those days often. Not because I regret the path I have chosen for myself, but because it was the foundation for now - in many more ways than most will ever know.

What will I miss most about Charles? Many things and nothing - because the memory of him is so ingrained in my head that I have always felt him around. His smile under his mustache, the twinkle in his eyes behind his wire rimmed round glasses, his little smirk and shovel walk and who could forget his locks - his braided hair that I had once the pleasure of seeing completely down - to his knees. Hamms beer and pizza parties, tractor seat stools and iron pours and hog roasts. Many of the things that I remember and so many more.

I am blessed to have known him. Thank you Charles, for everything.