"King Bo-Bo!"

~Litho Artist Proof~
Philip Bilse Dedrick
Courtesy of Ali Hansen

The print studio was never going to be my strong suit. Even P.D. remarked that its indirect process didn't agree with me. Which was his polite way of saying not to take second semester class.

I have one disastrous etching buried deep in my college portfolio. But I did have a mild success with one lithograph. Excited enough to desire P.D.'s approbation I rushed around the art department seeking him out. He was deep in conversation with a group of 'adults' but that didn't stand in my way of making noises, clearing my throat, jumping up & down, gesturing and tugging on his sleeve. I was being a brat. I suddenly yelled, and to this day can not say how the name popped into my head, "Bo-Bo, I need you!"

Immediately, and rather frighteningly, he whirled round on me. I thought: this is it, I have finally broken that gentle Edwardian veneer and peace of mind and was about to get blasted for my rudeness. He widened his arms and yelled back, "That's KING BO-BO, to you!" It was the name I called him for 30 years. Never once 'Phil' or 'Philip'.

Occasionally I would address him as 'The Ancient One' which I had lifted from the Dr. Strange comic books, being the sage mentor of the titular hero it seemed appropriate. Never ever did he question these appellations.

During that class I passed along a dripping etched plate for his inspection when he cried out as it clanged to the floor. He smiled in his cherubic fashion saying, "It hasn't been the first time I was handed a hot plate." Meaning I had forgotten to wash off the acid.

We also indulged in making paper in this ominous machine you had to climb up stairs to throw in old fabrics, like virgins offered unto a vulcano but with more practical results. "Two of my old suits found their way into that machine," he remembered fondly. Fondly I remember tossing Ali Hansen into that machine. The mulching was not activated, thus you could still find her hunched over a litho stone oblivious to the world and doodling away.

~Litho~
Ali Hansen

"Be careful about reckless, rampant doodling," Bo-Bo once observed, it being the first artistic exercise he could recall. "It could lead to becoming an artist or a professor of Art."

~Christmas Weavil, for Ray Yoshida, circa 1949~

Philip Bilse Dedrick

Naturally others excelled in printing making, as this beautiful & remarkably detailed etching by Bill Bruning shows. 

~Artist's Proof, 1974~
Bill Bruning

As well as printing making I took photography that semester.  Between acid washes and photo chemicals I spent Christmas break watching my fingernails yellow and drop off.