"Courtyard Action."

The core of the Clark Arts Building was the beautiful courtyard. You would circle the various art studios and glance out upon the trees (one of which, legend says, the facility was built around upon the request of a college benefactor... Mr. Dedrick wistfully remarking, "More money has been spent on keeping that tree alive." ), the flowering shrubs, the delicate Dogwood with its paper white blossoms in the Spring, the marvelous ceramic sculpture of Saint George & the Dragon (now in ruin and absent of George), and a large abstract sculpture/fountain. It was only on rare occasions- such as gallery openings or theatre premieres that anyone saw the water jetting out the top since, as P.D. shook his head and lamented, "They failed to engineer it to recycle the water."

Many of my models were from the various sports teams and I had some small influence in guiding them to take their elective requirements in the art department. In fact Jeff Cloninger, captain of the basket ball team, excelled in ceramics to a point that the instructor all but begged him to change majors. It saddens me when talent doesn't have the opportunity to thrive, but paths in life are chosen or destined. Jeff stuck with majoring in business.

Late one night P.D. was part of a conspiracy and unlocked the building and the courtyard. I can say with certainty that Joe Tromiczak, captain of the soccer team, is the only student who can lay claim to being photographed sprawled naked across the failed fountain.

As I set up my lights, I glanced over my shoulder to see our venerable professor chatting matter-of-factly with this unclothed figure of a beautiful young man. The moment remains forever in my mind as innocent and "absolutely delightful", as P.D. would say.

Posing in the courtyard was Rama Vupalapati's opportunity as well. She had just entered the art building when Bo-Bo pounced upon her with a request to model the college collection of Middle Eastern Garments. "You'd be smashing," she remembers him saying, and of course she agreed. It was all for insurance purposes evidently, and Rama slipped into one piece after another and was requested to express herself as if doing an Indian dance. It was the start and, sadly, the end of her modeling career... a pity to think she might have become a star in Bollywood.

My most special recollection of the courtyard was occasionally spotting Ali Hansen.

In winter months her foot prints left behind in the snow... as she went about a self appointed job... collecting and tenderly burying the little birds that had found misfortune against the circle of court windows that reflected the sky above.

~The First Swallows~
Juozas Mikenas
Vilnius, Lithuania