Happy Birthday, Walter
It was a blessing when Walter Hopps entered my life.
I was already an adult. I had planned to move to LA to take care of my ill grandfather but sadly, in the time that I wrapped up my affairs in Chicago and took a flight to LA, my grandfather known as "Doc" passed away.
Walter scared me. Not the least in that he was a famous guy. I had read about him in books long before I met him in person.
I was just 21, if memory serves (20 if I'm wrong) when Water saw one of my sculptures. I was taking a textile sculpture class at Otis Parsons and living in my deceased grandfather's house. Walter saw the sculpture that included some kind of deer jaw bone, twigs, and waxed linen thread. He asked, "who made that sculpture?". I said, I did. He asked to have it. It was the most profound complement and honor that he could provide. Of course, I said yes.
He said that the deer bone he had himself collected up in the Sierra Nevada when he was the age I was now. He said "you made it so much more". The piece was "Homage to a Midnight Sun". (I need to find a picture of it and upload it when I can.)
Today is Walter's birthday.
I celebrate my late, great Uncle.
What a gift he was to me. He loved artists and did his best to nurture their talent.
My life has been blessed by an overachiever with a heart of 22 K solid gold.
I'm sure he was difficult. But do you really expect solid gold to be easy? Just sayin'.
I was already an adult. I had planned to move to LA to take care of my ill grandfather but sadly, in the time that I wrapped up my affairs in Chicago and took a flight to LA, my grandfather known as "Doc" passed away.
Walter scared me. Not the least in that he was a famous guy. I had read about him in books long before I met him in person.
I was just 21, if memory serves (20 if I'm wrong) when Water saw one of my sculptures. I was taking a textile sculpture class at Otis Parsons and living in my deceased grandfather's house. Walter saw the sculpture that included some kind of deer jaw bone, twigs, and waxed linen thread. He asked, "who made that sculpture?". I said, I did. He asked to have it. It was the most profound complement and honor that he could provide. Of course, I said yes.
He said that the deer bone he had himself collected up in the Sierra Nevada when he was the age I was now. He said "you made it so much more". The piece was "Homage to a Midnight Sun". (I need to find a picture of it and upload it when I can.)
Today is Walter's birthday.
I celebrate my late, great Uncle.
What a gift he was to me. He loved artists and did his best to nurture their talent.
My life has been blessed by an overachiever with a heart of 22 K solid gold.
I'm sure he was difficult. But do you really expect solid gold to be easy? Just sayin'.
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