Lost Another Soldier

Oh Rui, where do I begin. I finally got around to visiting school yesterday. The past few months have been trying to say the least. But alas, i returned to see the defiant walls of our medieval cinder block sanctuary, and I sauntered in through the drawbridge underbelly that is the sculpture loading dock. I expected to hear your voice radiating off the cement, filling the first floor with laughter and/or fear. Your voice's command was a gift and you used it wisely. Also I anticipated the great "Rui hug." The kind that engulfed me in the best of everything you were and made me feel like I was home again. Then Bronson told me you were gone. fuck. I shoulda come around more often. I didn't even know you were sick.


There are so many things I want to thank you for. Most notably, my degree. Without your raunchy comedic relief in critique, relentless daily professor heckling, and of course endless snack sharing; I never would have made it through. I would have been too quiet and intimidated to try for big ambitious projects or apply for BFA...and too hungry to stay awake.  

Ill always remember and thank you for our back breaking hours spent wall building and grass braiding at peles chair. That project changed my artistic practice and my life, as well as morphed my understanding of you...

 

...For crocheting a doggy condom/lipstick case for snoopy, actually implementing it, and then circulating these incriminating photos

..For this piece. It was so powerful watching its construction/reclamation of heritage and pride.

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...For your remarkable talent as a ceramists and for the many gifted mugs that will forever caffeinate me.  

..For being your amazing brilliant twisted self all the time without apologies or excuses. 

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For delirious after hours studio conversations, toiling over the finishing touches of some project we'd procrastinated for three weeks. For the laughter. For the mochi crunch. For all of it. I love you. goodbye