Cover
Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", January 2001, page 2
Subscriber Ray Heim of Wonder Lake, Illinois, had a friend who attended a
showing at the Art Institute of Chicago. The cover of the program was a
photograph of a sculpture, "Aquatic Light", by senior student Rebecca
Dickson. Ray thought it would be a great cover for Crown Jewels of the Wire.
Several phone calls were made to the Art Institute staff who located Rebecca in
California where she was currently studying. My gratitude to Rebecca for her
talent and her choice of media! Read Rebecca's story below, and watch for
further information about Rebecca's website and other artistic endeavors.
During my last year of studying fine art at The School of the Art Institute
of Chicago I decided to take a three month road trip with Colleen, a good friend
of mine. After several months of planning, we set out to explore a decent amount
of the United States, Canada and Alaska. We usually traveled the scenic routes,
driving roughly five hours per day leaving us with enough light to set up camp
by late afternoon. At the time, I was working on an idea for a sculpture that
incorporated glass insulators with hand built ceramic vessels. I had always
found the little insulators intriguing, the way light illuminated them when my
Mom placed several near a window for display in our house. I was never really
concerned with the function of the insulators, to me they were beautiful glass
objects that reminded me of Caribbean water. And so the hunt began. I was on a
mission to find as many turquoise glass insulators as possible. I wanted to
illuminate a bunch of them. . . to form a sea of glass.
It was towards the end of our road trip that I hit the jackpot. Now keep in
mind, I had been traveling by road all over the United States, through Canada
and parts of Alaska, leisurely stopping at antique stores to find the
insulators. Most of them were in the range of eight to fifteen dollars and I was
really only concerned with the turquoise glass. I had about three and wanted
about fifty, plus we were at the end of our trip and I was to work on my
sculpture when I resumed with school. I didn't have enough insulators to do what
I wanted, to make the sea of glass. Time was running out and so were my funds.
Colleen and I were now traveling somewhere near Carlsbad Caverns in Southern New
Mexico. I was driving her 1993 Jeep Cherokee on a fairly remote road and
happened to look down a street that we were crossing. And there it was,
insulator heaven! We pulled into the driveway of a ranch style home that was
surrounded by hundreds of glass insulators. Like a fence, the insulators
surrounded the perimeter of the house, marking boundaries for the sidewalk
leading up to the front door, lining the street, the backyard, the garden, there
were insulators everywhere! I purchase around fifty, for fifty dollars form the
nice man who lived there. The box of heavy glass was strapped to the roof of
Colleen's Jeep. We finished our road trip through Texas, on to Alabama, and then
home to Chicago.
The sculpture, "Aquatic Light," has something to do with the way
the ocean makes coral reefs with electrical current. The ceramic vessels are my
vision of coral, tubular like forms, organic in shape. The insulators prevent
the passage of electricity. . . the passage of life, of growth. Though, mainly,
"Aquatic Light" is about the turquoise glass insulators and the fact
that I find them to be pretty. They are little works of art all by themselves.
Rebecca Dickson
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