LETTER & NUMBER SCULPTURES c. 1965-69

A long, long time ago, maybe the year 1954, I was introduced to alphabets and typography by my graphic design mentor and teacher - the infamous Stan Hodge - who was teaching at what was then called Long Beach State College. He liked Times Roman and sarcasm and we both nipped on the bottle. In class, he was sometimes rude, sarcastic and candid which offended many thin skinned art students. But he was an excellent teacher, and went on to become an art director for General Dynamics. Stan and I became friends and one night after a few beers, we climbed an art department tree on campus and emptied our bladders. He left Long Beach for San Diego in about 1957 to work for Convair Astronautics as their art director. After teaching art at Newport Harbor High School for two years, my wife and I moved to San Diego were I eventually worked for Stan at Astronautics in order to get work experience for a future job teaching at a community college. Stan still preferred the type face Times Roman and he made most of his designers use Times Roman. He continued to hit the bottle and became noted for outrageous behavior at the monthly San Diego Art Director's Club meetings. When I left Astronautics, the occasion was remembered by my being escorted to the gate by security after removing my shirt upon returning to the office after a lunch where too much beer was consumed. Like mentor, like mentee. I bought a small platen press and a collection of type and established the "Hand Set Press." It was printing for fun and not commercial and a number of like minded designers formed an organization called "The Patrons of the Private Press," and had monthly meetings to share our work. Bill Noonan, Rene Sheret, Byrt Brockett were the other members who also had their own presses. We organized a show for the San Diego Art Museum in Balboa Park and had private press work from all over the world. In the late sixties, I gave up the press and started a series of wood sculptures based on my fondness for the alphabet. And that is what this old work is all about.

The carved wood and painted red number two was later cast into a solid bronze piece which was later stolen from the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art and later recovered. Then it was de-acquistioned.

Word Series - 1966-68