look what you made me do...part 1 of 3

Part 1:

I met Jencyn about a year ago and I knew about her several months prior to that meeting.  She is a nursing major, currently excelling in that program and on her way to becoming a successful graduate.  During her freshman year, she was randomly paired with a roommate, Elena, who happened to be an art major.  Elena enrolled in a sculpture class and not too long after that experience, changed her major to 3D BFA, which meant taking a lot more sculpture classes.  That sentence could be extrapolated into a whole story of its own, but today we’re just focusing on Jencyn.  

Jencyn started hearing about the sculpture class and the sculpture professor, and I’m sure she heard a lot more than I even know at this point.  I can be a bit much in the studio.  I actively try to harness my high energy and enthusiasm for sculpture and use that to inspire students to do great things.  This is a highly considered aspect of my teaching practice.  I understand that it can come off as annoying and probably overwhelming at times.  I’m sure Jencyn heard it all.  

About a year ago, Elena told me that Jencyn would like to come to a coffee talk so Cathryn, Elena and I met her at Starbucks for an hour-long conversation.  We left, having learned that Jencyn was cool, and we went on about our lives in the sculpture studio while Jencyn went back to studying.  

coffee with jencyn 2025

A few little adventures have happened in the time since but when this spring semester began, Jencyn found herself with a little extra time on Tuesdays and Thursdays, conveniently when my upper level sculpture classes meet.  One recent Tuesday, I walked through the studio on a rampage trying to get students motivated to work and when I walked past Elena’s studio table, I saw Jencyn sitting there with a laptop.  She seemed to be doing some work and I didn’t want to pry, so I said hello and moved along with my rampage.  

A little while later I walked by again and saw Jencyn still there.  I made a little comment about how if she stuck around too long, I’d put her to work.  She joked back and over the next few minutes my teacher brain started buzzing.  I wondered what she would do if I gave her some sculpture materials.  You know, just some simple things, maybe that air dry clay that’s been on the shelf for a couple of years.  I wondered, “Could I get her to make a sculpture?” and I think I kept that question silent in my head.  My teacher interest was piqued.

I whirled around and started looking for materials.  The air dry clay turned out to be just a recycled container, so I quickly located some alternative materials.  I found a couple of Styrofoam spheres and some wire.  I went to Jencyn and deposited the materials and said, “Here, if you’re gonna be in the sculpture studio, you have to make something!”.  This was an important moment from my perspective.  Once the challenge is issued, the seconds that follow often determine the outcome.  Without hesitation, she closed her laptop, smiled and said, “Alright.”  The best possible response.  It was on.

Jencyn getting started

Jencyn told me later that as she worked on her “project”, she was creating a blog post in her head about her experience.  She was kind enough to write it down and give me permission to share excerpts with you.  About this part of the story, she wrote:

“Last week, I got the honor to play pretend sculpture student not once, but twice. It started as an invitation from Elena to work on my assignments in an environment that wasn’t our apartment or a stuffy study room in the library. I accepted, of course.  I feel special to be allowed in the sculpture studio and to get the chance to pretend I belong there. I sat in and started working on an assignment that wasn’t due for another week. I was kind of having a hard week. The anxiety of nursing classes, labs, never ending ATI assignments along with the studying I should’ve been doing was catching up to me and I had had multiple days of feeling like I wasn’t allowed to relax or give myself time to think about anything else because I had to focus on passing and passing well. About 45 minutes into this, McAbee randomly asked if I wanted to make something. I said “sure!” , considering I was in a studio I technically wasn’t supposed to be in, and already had multiple days of work ahead done, why not. He handed me some random objects, Cathryn and Elena handed me tools, and I got to work.”

Back to my narrative…I paid close attention for the next hour or so.  I couldn’t really give her an assignment because I didn’t want to scare her off, but not giving any direction at all could lead to frustration.  So I kept a close eye on progress.  She started out bending the wire and trying to connect it to the spheres.  That didn’t seem to be doing much, so I told her she could do anything she wanted, even carving the foam.  This was a magic button.  She immediately lit up, took a sharp tool and began carving the sphere.  Just a few minutes later, she had carved a heart from the sphere with a knack for form that I don’t always see in art students, even some 3D BFA students.  Elena was also helping and encouraging her.  She may have suggested the addition of some paper maché and we quickly located some pre-mixed glue and water and Jencyn got to work as if she knew exactly what she was doing.  She later wrote:

“I sat and carved a makeshift heart out of Styrofoam, and was mid paper-mâché when I received a small red sticker of encouragement. I smiled and said thank you, feeling a little silly because I hadn’t really done much compared to the other people in the studio grinding (both literally with tools and figuratively in working). I ended up making a heart with paper mâché and writing/doodling on it and stuck some wire spiraled through it. I had fun. It was the first time in a few days I hadn’t felt so anxious, even if all I did was make a mess with some Styrofoam.”

Elena getting the paper maché ready

By the end of that studio class, Jencyn had created a small paper maché heart covered in sheet music.  She further decorated the surface with marker and did a great job.  I praised and encouraged and invited her to come back any time.

The finished heart, Jencyn's first sculpture!

Before the Thursday studio class, Elena let me know that Jencyn was coming back.  A major teaching victory for me!  I told Elena to make sure Jencyn was dressed for studio work, a hint that welding was an option if the clothing was right.  Could I get her to do one of the scariest processes in the studio?  Would she burst into flames and run out of the studio on fire?  Tune in next time for Part 2 of the story.

misnomer

(note:  this one took some time to ferment and develop so it’s been roughly 7 days between the writing of it and the posting of it.)

Dear Friends,

There’s so much evil going on in the world, a blog seems so silly.  I had a wonderful teaching experience this week that I wanted to share.  I had the rare opportunity to give a crash course in sculpture to a non-major and after thinking about it more, I think there’s something profound to be mined from it.  Something about pedagogical theory and how I’m using it intentionally to create a specific environment for learning.

Sadly, you’re going to have to wait a bit for that one because between me beginning to process those thoughts on Friday and me getting to have a moment in front of a computer now (Saturday evening) some things have happened to distract me.  Yesterday, when our “representatives” had the opportunity to stop funding this obvious violation of constitutional rights and basic human rights going on in the streets of our cities, several of those goofballs flipped and pushed the total number of votes for funding over the top.  They had the power to end it and they chose not to do that.  Then, another protester was shot and killed.  An American citizen.  And none of us can forget that before that, they did that thing with the 5 year old kid.  

I have come to expect government to be evil.  It’s not a pleasant thought to sit with, but it’s an honest thought based on years of observation.  What I’m having a tougher time with is the general and specific support of political evil by those who label themselves as “Christian”.  To be a little more specific, I’m mostly talking about those who label themselves as Evangelical Christian, the brand of Christianity I grew up in.

I’m not talking about the politicians who will court their local churches and quote Bible verses during election season.  These chumps will do and say literally anything to be elected/reelected. No, I’m talking about your aunts, uncles, friends and acquaintances who are very active in their local church but have fallen victim to false teachings about their religion.  The ones who’ve been tricked into believing their religion can be mixed with their politics.

False teaching sounds harsh, I know.  You see, I’ve read the Bible a few times and studied it for many years as a regular churchgoer and I know the text has a lot of bad things to say about false teachers and false prophets.  I was just always made to believe those were the people outside the church.  Not the pastors.  Not the Sunday School teachers.  Not our relatives.

Driving around my small Southern town, I know to expect to see an American flag sticker and maybe a couple of gun stickers on the back of a vehicle sporting a cross or some other Christian symbol.  There may not be anything wrong with that in principle.  I’m not a fan of stereotypes and I don’t mind telling you that I like my freedom, I own guns and I follow the teachings of Jesus.  All those things and more can be wrapped in one complicated human.  That knowledge prevents me from being too judgmental of stickers on cars until I see the Christian symbols mixed with the political stickers.  For clarity, I don’t care which flavor of politics you prefer.  Left, right, donkey or elephant, none of it mixes well with Jesus.

In my church upbringing, I sat in a sanctuary listening to a pastor explaining the Bible to me while he (yes, it was always a he) was flanked by two flags, one with stars and stripes and one with a cross.  At Vacation Bible School, I carried one of those flags when I was well behaved and held it proudly as we recited the pledge of allegiance to the American flag, the Christian flag and the Bible.  (It has come to my attention that this may be a much more specific personal experience than I thought.  If you’re curious about these pledges, I’d be happy to discuss.  I still remember them.)  We had big “outreach” events on the 4th of July, complete with fireworks and we got a lot of not-so-subtle instructions on how a Christian should vote every couple of years around October.  America was always on stage in the church.  

We were taught that we lived in a “Christian Nation” built on “Christian Principles” so it seemed normal to have so much “Murica” mixed into our religion.  Our men’s groups would have “wild game dinners” that focused on camouflage, gun rights and hunting.  We were constantly reminded that we needed to stand against the killing of unborn babies and I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that we were encouraged to vote for anyone who ran on the “pro-life” ticket, no matter how terrible or unqualified they were.  I’m using past tense here and these experiences date back to my childhood, but I assure you that all of these things and more are still going on in the Evangelical Church to this day.

But somehow, that escalated into being encouraged to vote for the “lesser of two evils” even when that “lesser” was actually a convicted felon who in a recorded TV interview told the interviewer that he had never in his life done anything that he needed to ask forgiveness for.  In light of what we know he’s done now, that seems particularly not in line with at least one of the Ten Commandments.

And many of these “Christians” won’t admit they messed up.  With so many human rights violations happening on a daily basis, many Christian pastors are still not standing up in their pulpits and pointing out the contradictions between the teachings of Jesus and the works of the evil people they helped put in power.  They continue to support a power structure and political leaders who embody taking away the rights of anyone who doesn’t choose to live like Christians think you should live.    

The Jesus they say they love, the Jesus who was brown, who illegally crossed borders as an immigrant, who was wanted by the political and religious authorities, who broke religious laws, who cared for the poor and the sick and who loved everyone, no matter what they did or believed would likely not be welcome in their million dollar megachurches.  And even if they allowed him inside, I can’t help but think he would be bewildered by their in-house coffee shops, the pastor’s book sales in the lobby and the constant requests for money.  Remember that time when Jesus flipped those tables in the Temple?  Good times.

The American Evangelical Christian church is not growing.  Your local pastor may show you numbers that indicate otherwise, but I’ll ask you to really look at the data closely.  The church that’s gaining members is largely gaining them from other churches in decline.  The Christians are simply moving around within their established subculture when they get angry or bored.  That bump in attendance at your church is less evidence that the church is growing and more evidence that the pastor across town just made some people mad.  

The teachings of Jesus were called “gospel” or literally translated, good news.  That good news in a broader view is that all humans are loved by God.  All humans.  Keep in mind that “Christians” didn’t even exist when this good news was first announced.

The group that is currently abducting, attacking and killing people in the street has been using Bible verses in their job marketing ads.  They’re using right-wing religious media to advertise to young Christian men.  People are arguing online and Christians are attempting to defend the senseless violence as a holy purge.  People with Bible verses posted in their bios are wishing death and harm on people who have different opinions than them.  People, who like them, were created in the image of the God they say they love.

Hatred, bigotry and corruption.  Not exactly good news.

Listen, this is not easy for me to write.  I was raised to believe I was supposed to love my neighbor AND my enemy.  That I was supposed to care for the those less fortunate than me.  That I was supposed to seek peace and that my life was supposed to be a visual representation of the good news.  Now I’m watching those spiritual beliefs be hijacked by a political party and used as a weapon.  If that sentence makes you uncomfortable, I encourage you to research how the anti-abortion issue was injected into Evangelical Churches a few decades ago in a calculated effort to get Christians to vote.  I’m watching the church who told me to love my neighbor in Sunday School, worship a criminal who makes fun of mentally challenged people, insults women and brags about assault.  When I tell people I’m a Christian, I have to follow up with “but not THAT kind of Christian”.  Simultaneously, I’m watching Christians I used to respect double down on cruelty.  They say those people shouldn’t have come here illegally, so they deserve it.  They say the protesters should have stayed home so they deserve it.  And my new favorite, they say he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun.  Oh the irony as they carry their concealed weapons to church every Sunday morning.  

I guess those “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets were just decoration.  What about grace?  What about mercy?  What about love?  I’m ready to see the people who say they follow the teachings of Jesus start acting like Jesus.  And if they don’t want to do that, I’m ready for them to start calling themselves what they really are:  Capitalists.

us and them

When I was an art major in college, I always felt like a peripheral person.  If that’s not a thing yet, I say we make it a thing.  A peripheral person is one who doesn’t feel like they fit in with the group, so they stick around on the outside edges.  Sometimes this may be perceived, but sometimes it may be real.  Mine was real.  I was a straight, white, Christian, male with good parents and no trauma surrounded by peers who were not really those things at all.  I was observant and interested, but I mostly found my place on the periphery of most studio conversations and social interactions.  I was close enough to hear the conversations and to participate if I felt compelled, but I was mostly just observing and soaking up information.  I was learning.  

I have this student now, we’ll call her Carolina, who I relate to a lot.  She comes from a similar family background and checks a lot of the boxes I did as a student.  In an art department you’ll see people with dyed hair, impromptu haircuts, goth outfits, rainbow outfits, shirts with political slogans, spikes, chains and metal t-shirts sitting beside pretty people with perfect makeup, freshly curled hair and an outfit suitable for Sunday worship service.  Carolina most often has a t-shirt, jeans and her hair pulled back into a pony tail.  Obviously, I don’t relate well to the hair, but the outfit, the background and the disposition all fit pretty well.  

There are days when the more flamboyant and colorful people will do something a bit over the top in the sculpture studio.  In that moment when most people in the room are processing what just happened, Carolina will make eye contact with me, share a knowing smile, and turn and walk out of the room.  The silent message is, “That was really weird, wasn’t it?  We’re not weird like that.”

It's nice to have a Carolina.  Sometimes when things feel so very odd and irrational, Carolina makes me feel grounded.  Like, it’s not us, it’s them, you know?  

While I’m thankful for Carolina, I’m also thankful for the others who hang around a lot in the studio and in my office.  We also share some things in common, but we have some very cool differences.  I’m not sure how specific I can be without you knowing exactly who I’m talking about, but let’s give it a go.  I’d say we all have some shared moral values and definitely a dark (but really funny) sense of humor, but we have very different fashion ideas, come from different family situations and our friend groups outside of school are also very different.  In this group, it’s our differences that make things fun and interesting.  When we have conversations about big things, we don’t always agree and that space between our thoughts is so important.  Sometimes we all go away in silence and we ponder the different perspectives for hours after.  It gives us space to think about what we believe and why.  It gives us space to change our minds.  

In the dumpster fire that is our country recently, I’ve seen a lot of different reactions to the tragic and disturbing events we see in the news and on our social media platforms.  Since the rise of the “clown”, I’ve noticed a few different times that people have posted things like “if you support ___insert most recent abomination of freedom here___ , then please unfollow me”.  I’ve heard people say they have cut off family and friends who have different political ideas.  Most of my life I’ve also known religious people who will limit their time with you unless you subscribe to the exact same explanation of God as they do.  

I understand this sentiment of wanting to block and unfriend people as an act of anger.  It’s so hard to believe that someone could intellectually support something that seems to obviously wrong to you.  Like you, I’ve asked myself out loud, “How could anyone still support that at this point?”

I think there’s a grave danger in this way of thinking and I want to share that with you for consideration.  

You ever wonder how anyone could possibly believe or support something that to you is so obviously wrong?  You may not like the answer.  It’s because, like you, they’ve chosen to surround themselves with like-minded people.  Wait, don’t leave yet.  Hear me out, please.  

Let’s start with “them”.  Because, come on, what idiots, am I right?  While we can see clearly that they are wrong and maybe devoid of a soul, what we can’t always see so clearly is that they have chosen to live each day in an echo chamber of their own beliefs.  If they wake up and grab their phones to look at the news, what news will they see?  The one they trust, which they’ve chosen because the network’s slant aligns with their belief system.  Then they open social media.  They’ll see an endless scroll of posts that also align with their belief system.  That’s how algorithms work.  Their friends were chosen because of shared beliefs as well, so when they get text messages or hang out in person, the topics align with those beliefs.  Their lives have been carefully curated to avoid troubling thoughts from the other side.  There’s no reason to question their beliefs.  Ever.  

So that thing that happened recently, they didn’t experience that the same way you did.  Every bit of information they got was passed through a totally different filter.  Their “truth” was provided to them from a different source.  The “facts” you know, they never even got to see those and they have no reason to go looking for them.  The thing happened, they were told about it by their chosen system of filters, and they formed (or reinforced) an opinion about it.

You see how that works, right?  

But what if we flip that little magnifying glass and look at us?  The sane people.  Do you see how you and I do the same thing?  We’ve curated our lives to have our own filters and our “truth” is handed to us through that same process.  

In curated lives like these, the only hope we have of keeping an open mind and considering different thoughts is by keeping people in our lives who do not think like we do.  

An open mind used to be a sign of intelligence.  The ability to hold opposing thoughts in your head was a sign of education.  Believe it or not, people used to go to college not to get a specific job, but to learn how to think and filter ideas for themselves.  

Even Carolina and I don’t see eye to eye on everything.  I’m sure she’d be the first to tell you that!  But I love having her similar but different perspective in my life.  My office pals will also tell you I’m a crazy person and that I have some very weird beliefs.  But I’m so glad to have them around to share different views with me so that I can keep growing and changing.  Maybe I’ll have a little influence on them too.  And all the other students, the ones who have different gender ideas, different religious ideas, different sexual identities, different family situations, they all have things to teach me, too.  

My humble suggestion is to not block the different people from your life.  My suggestion is to welcome them.  Befriend them, have conversations with them.  We didn’t get into this terrible situation in our country by mixing and mingling.  We got here because our churches, clubs, neighborhoods and political parties kept saying it’s “us vs. them”.

choosing how to see my year

The year 2025 is ending and during these long, dark nights of winter, it’s easy to become quiet and reflective.  During the "holiday taint" (not my creation but I love it) many of us look back on the previous 11.75 months and we assess how the year was for us.  The easiest path is to feel we have to judge the year as good or bad and use our selective memories to back up that judgment.  

Like most things in life, a year is neither good nor bad.  It simply is.  Each day is what we make of it.  Some things we can choose and others we cannot.  Our perspective, though, is always in our control.  Here’s how I’m choosing to see my year.  (With a little help from my camera roll, because I too, forget so many details and need a little visual help remembering all the awesome things.)

This is the first photo I took in 2025.  Violet and I stayed up to see midnight and apparently we kept a very young, very small Walter up as well.  Maybe it would be a good idea to try to group these highlights.  Let's call the next one "students"...

These two provide endless entertainment for me and everyone else in the sculpture studio.  Cathryn and Elena are "hype men" when I need support, they are comedians when I need a laugh and they are obviously very talented dancers.  Yes, they're dancing in the pic.  I have the whole video they made during a welding break and I laugh out loud every time I see it.  

They're also spectacular artists and students.  This highlight is from the Student Juried Exhibit Reception and Awards.  Both won highly coveted sculpture awards that night and then they both won awards in a local juried exhibit off campus.  They definitely made my year better.

The last half of my year had far too little MG in it.  But if you know MG, you know that she made up for it in the first half of the year.  She was also a laugh riot and a great student.  This pic is from her crowning achievement at her BFA reception.  MG gave me a year's worth of smiles before May ended.  

The last half of my year also had far too little Katherine in it.  In June, she packed up and moved across the state.  Before June, she also brought her fair share of smiles and laughs to me.  I've also been lucky to call her a friend and she's made sure to check in and catch up pretty regularly.  I'm really grateful for that.  She's also not a student, so I guess I messed the category up.  We did have some of the same students, so that may save it.  I currently have some students Katherine taught when they were freshmen.  That's pretty cool.

This photo pretty much sums up my year with students.  Sometimes you want to throttle them, but overall they're amazing and fun.  

Going to Mir's field hockey games this semester was also fun.  I helped talk Mir into coming back to the US for another year instead of staying in Belgium.  She got to be on the team again and it was cool to learn more about this weird sport and watch her hit people with a stick.

Oh and Shine!  Shine likes to torture me with cats and it always makes me laugh.  Sometimes I'll be working in my office and I'll hear meowing in the hallway.  It's always Shine.

This category is "art".  It was a big year for making art.  I may have only made 2 new sculptures, but I made more than 10 new drawings and several of those were quite large.  I got artwork accepted into 11 exhibits, had two solo exhibits, curated a very cool show, won 3 awards and only had 20 rejections.  One of my favorite things about the year in art was taking on the challenge of making full sized human cut-out drawings.

Ok, I take that back.  One of my favorite things about the year in art was being included in the "At This Moment" exhibit and book by Jerry Siegel and Mark Sloan.  Jerry is a world famous photographer and he came to my home studio to take my photo.  A few months later, that photo was included in the book and exhibition of his photos at the Greenville County Museum of Art.  The book and exhibit featured 78 artists with ties to South Carolina.  Among them were Jasper Johns, Shepard Fairey and Tom Stanley....real artistic heroes and mentors.  I'm still blown away by this.  

Ok wait.  One of my favorite things about the year in art was being invited to create artwork live at Beeple Studios in North Charleston.  This was a fundraiser for my favorite Art Center, Public Works Art Center and Beeple was there hanging out with us.  That's him (Mike) watching Devann sew.  Devann, Maddie and Katherine were all on my fundraising team.  We had the MOST fun and the BEST team.

Here's my drawing from the event.

Here's Katherine's.  It sold so fast.

Here's Maddie's collage.  So fun.

And here's Devann's quilt square trolls.  See?  I had the best team.

Ok, seriously, one of my favorite things about the year in art was having my second solo, immersive exhibition at Public Works Art Center.  I was the first person to ever be invited back for a second exhibit and I had the BEST time filling the gallery with energy and love.  I got to see all my favorite people and I even met some of my new favorite people.  Major highlight.

Creighton get's his own category.  This is the "creighton" category.  Violet and I got excited when we heard Band of Horses was coming to Greenville.  Creighton got us 7th row tickets and backstage passes.  The concert was amazing and after the show, we got to go hang out with Creighton and the guys.  It was so cool.  Definitely a year highlight.

This category is called "hope despite the times".  This was the title of the exhibit I got to curate in Public Works Art Center.  I got to showcase the artwork of some of my favorite artists.  It was so cool to come up with my dream list of artists and invite them.  Every single one said yes and it was an amazing exhibit.  

I'm calling this category "music" and while I did go to some cool concerts and listen to a crazy amount of hours of music while drawing, my favorite music of the year was the music Violet made with me.  This was our 5th year of doing Whenever We Can Tunes and I'm still shocked and honored that she still wants to make fun videos with me.  Definitely on the highlight reel for the year.

This is the "outside" category.  Increasingly, humans are spending more and more time indoors.  When I feel myself falling victim to this, I like to go outside and breath the real air.  I got to bush hog mom's garden twice this year.  My dad's old John Deere is still starting up, so we're still using it.  I feel like a little kid when I drive it.

I added porch sitting to my weekly routine this year and I'm better off for it.  Not only do you get the air, you also get the sounds, the temperature and the relaxation of the view.  Everything about it lowers my stress levels and blood pressure.  I'm currently working on perfecting the right furniture situation for the front porch.  

Of course there's a "running" category.  If memory serves, I ran in almost every weather condition we get here.  Some snow, some rain, some lightning, some heat, some cold and some high winds.  I was lucky to not have any injuries or pains that prevented me from running every day.  Last summer, Violet was injured, so I didn't end up running quite as many extra miles at practice, but I did get to work on some speed with the boys team and I made it to the tree in a speed run.  Y'all don't know what that means but if I was on the team, I would have gotten a sticker for the accomplishment.  I love running.  I wish you did too.

The "teaching" category.  This one is different from "students" because it's all about my perspective as a teacher.  Sometimes teaching can be frustrating and a teacher can feel like they're just wasting time and words, but this year was really good for teaching.  In the spring semester, I had a fun, great group of students in my classes and I got to shepherd the BFA students as they prepared for their solo exhibits.  MG made sure I felt appreciated and I got to celebrate a good group of seniors at graduation.  In the fall, I had a really awesome collection of students and I was able to be patient enough to wait on some really great results.  Some of what happened was honestly just luck, but it was all good.  I can't say too much about some of these successes because they're still ongoing and talking about them would ruin it.  Just know that good things are happening.  The one I can share, and have already if you scroll down, is the cool thing I did with Elena and her sculpture.  

It was a risk, but it turned out to be such a fun success.  It's great for students to see you challenge yourself as a teacher and it's even better for them to see that you actually care.  Again, I'll give luck the credit for the idea and for how it turned out.  I was just happy to be around.  Teaching was pretty cool this year.

There was so much solo travel this year, I had to make a "travel" category.  We did have a couple of fun family vacations to the beach this year, but this category is mostly about me traveling out of town on art trips.  These are solo trips and since I'm not a social guy, they can be pretty solitary.  I don't mind that part.  I enjoy time alone and it gives me opportunity to do silly, fun things without embarrassing anyone.  That pic is from one of my morning runs in the mirror outside the elevators.  Running allows me to explore the different towns and cities.

Any time I get to see Kathe and Tom Stanley is a highlight.  This summer I went to Chapel Hill a couple of times and since they live nearby in Durham, they showed up to support me.  I love them so much.

One of those trips was to install Phoebe in Hillsboro.  It was so hot and humid and I was soaked with sweat even though the entire install lasted only about 10 minutes.  

There were hotels and runs in several different places.  There were side-quests and fun adventures.  I even got to go to South Of The Border for the first time in my life.  Loved it.  Probably have to go back in a couple of months for another trip.  I may not love trying to sleep in a strange place, but these trips mean that I'm installing artwork and sharing it with people and that's pretty awesome.  I'm hoping for many more trips next year.  

So were there days when I felt like a caged animal stuck in a terrible meeting?  Of course.  Were there days when I walked in the door at home thinking I could use a drink?  Definitely.  Were there days I cussed at Jenna for being a stubborn-ass?  Oh yeah.  But each day brought it's own beauty and if I was patient enough, I'd see it before bedtime.  There was a lot of stress, a lot of worry, a lot of really dark days.  But there was light and love and beauty for all of us who looked for it.  

I hope that you and I both will be patient enough to find the light, love and beauty in each day of 2026. 

fall rewind

 Maybe it's age, maybe it's the crazy tech-world we live in, but I feel like time is moving very quickly and I've had so many experiences since August that I have several moments each week when someone will mention an event and I'll think, "Dude, I forgot that even happened".  

Since this blog started as my electronic sketchbook, let's throw some images and moments in from the really fun Fall 2025 semester...

As best I can remember, this is how it started.  A couple of my current students and a former student came to see my exhibit at Public Works Art Center.  The coolest thing about this image for me is that I taught Rumminger and Rumminger taught Cathryn.  (I also taught Emily (not pictured) and Emily taught Elena.)  Anyway, it was a fun field trip with lots of laughter.

Cathryn and Elena had a couple of kids in August.  Congrats to those two and to Jenna, the Godparent.

I love teaching so much and I really love it when the Universe gives me great students.  This semester I loved every single one of them and their cool personalities made the Sculpture Studio a great place to be.  I also LOVE getting to teach students to use power tools and seeing how badass it makes them feel.

Twinning with Luke.  I've really enjoyed watching Luke change into a completely different student over the last year.  

I got to dress up with the girl gang for an early Halloween party.  We were people from the Lorax movie.

And I didn't have to wear a dress or wig this year for the actual Halloween party.

Slogging is back as a regular, weekly event thanks to these people.  Even Blue joined us a couple of times.  (I like that Blue goes to school here, but don't tell him.  I don't want to scare him off.)

I traveled so much this semester that the dogs start getting anxious every time they see a duffle bag.  It was all good travel, though and I got to see people like Tom and Kathe Stanley, Jana and Dan Riley, Katherine, Logan, Kevin Jones, Kevin Morrissey, Devann, Jay, and so many other heroes and aspirational friends along the way.  That's Katherine and Logan at the end of the Public Works exhibit.

I definitely don't want to forget the time we went slogging and found a 2x4 and took it back to the Studio.  Nevaeh would later use that board to create the frame for her door painting.  

Each week, these Ninjas of Kindness gathered in the plaza to make people smile.

It's one of my favorite things.  I love them.

Molly came to campus!  I loved seeing her artwork and getting to hear about her creative process.  She's so cool.

I think I only managed to do 3 episodes of Coffee With McAbee this semester.  Maybe I can fit more in during the spring.  The Jenna episode was great.

I got to teach a whole new batch of people to weld.  It was amazing.  I love it so much.  

We had one open Saturday to do the Art Hike and we made it work.  It was a great day with great people.  So much fun and fresh air.

Dan was kind enough to invite me back to be a guest artist at the Blackwater Boogie.  I always feel like a VIP in and around Summerville because of Jana and Dan.  The Boogie gives me a badge and wrist band that actually says "VIP".  So much love here.

This is Mir.  Actually, Mirte Van Roosebeke but for the life of me, I can't pronounce it without making Mir laugh at me.  Mir introduced me and the girl gang to field hockey.  It's not easy to learn from the sidelines, but we're getting the hang of it.  We enjoyed going to several games this season and watching Mir hurt people.  This pic is from the Championship game where they came in 2nd.  Hope Christmas is good in Belgium, Mir!

I'm so honored to know so many cool people.  I don't know how I got invited to Mrs. Emmette's 70th birthday party, but it was one of the highlights of my year.  What a sweet and kind lady.  What a treasure to have her at Lander.

I mentioned Tom earlier and I just mentioned how it's an honor to know so many cool people.  I don't know how I won the lottery to get to know Tom and Kathe but dang, I consider myself truly blessed.  Tom is a legend and he's so supportive of me and so many other artists.  He gives all the time and I love him so much.  It was a ridiculous honor to be featured with him at the Greenville County Museum of Art's "At This Moment" exhibit and book project.  

I got to serve the annual Charlie Brown Thanksgiving feast to my students again this year.  This is fast becoming one of my favorite traditions.  

Ali and Emily at the SCAEA conference.  They're both art teachers now and I remember back a million years ago when they were my students roasting me with a poster for my 40th birthday.  I still have the poster on my office wall.

The puppet parade was a cool showcase for how awesome my Sculpture 1 students were this semester.  I was so proud of what they created and shared with the campus.

Keith Haring may be my favorite artist of all time.  I got to see an exhibit of his work recently at the Columbia Museum of Art and it was inspiring and wonderful and great.  (A weird side note: The CMA posted a black and white photo of Haring drawing on a wall before the exhibit opened and several friends sent me messages saying they did a double take when they saw it because they thought it was a photo of me.  It also fooled me briefly.)

The Elena project will definitely be one I remember for many years.  There's a whole post about this if you scroll down.  I was so impressed with how she rose to the ridiculous challenge.  I'm thrilled to say we were accepted into the juried exhibit!

As a bald man, I believe hair is magical.  I love a good braid, some twists, a bus-down (Taylor, did I spell that correctly?), highlights, waves and the way hair frames a face.  I also have very strong opinions about bangs.  Somehow all that has translated into me having a collection of student hair I've cut in the studio.  Hit me up if you'd like to donate.

This one is very recent but a great memory already.  I spent the day with upper level students at Fort Dorchester High School and got to teach them to use the jigsaw!  Based on the Elena project, we cut out figures and began drawing on them for a school mural.  Such a fun day with amazing students.

Another recent but important event for the semester.  I got invited to create artwork at Beeple Studios during a live event last weekend.  I was a team leader and I got to select my pod of artists, Devann, Maddie and Katherine.  (I also had Creighton and Katelynn but they ended up having other commitments and had to skip)  Together with all the other artists, we helped raise almost $30,000 for the upcoming Public Works Art Center expansion project.  You can help by going to their website and making a donation!

And this was just two days ago, but Sunday ended up being so beautiful when I went out to run that I decided to delay my departure and go to the Charleston waterfront to enjoy one last summer day before the harsh winter set in.  Literally, the temperature dropped 30 degrees during my 3 hour drive home and it was something like 15 degrees the next morning.  But, before that, I enjoyed a beautiful morning in Charleston with blue skies, perfect light and 71 degrees.  

You may have come here because you were interested or maybe you wondered if your name would be mentioned.  As I said, I have the honor of knowing so many miraculous humans and while that's great, it makes it unrealistic to mention every single person who positively impacted my life this semester.  There were so many!  My running friends on IG who I know better than most people but have never met in person deserve a mention.  People who have said nice things about my artwork deserve a mention.  All my current and former students deserve a mention.  Oh and the dogs.  There was an image that wouldn't load and it was of Walter, the menace.  He and Timmy have brought smiles and comfort in spite of their minor irritations and major vet bills.  But they can't read blogs, so back to you, kind human, reading this.  I am also grateful for you and your interest in my weird, ridiculous life.