Our teacher at Otis, Franklyn Liegel, died suddenly last February 28th. It was the second week of class and he didn’t show up. That is not like Franklyn, he was always early- ready to help anyone who came early for his sage advice-this is one time that phrase is perfectly apt…

Natasha and Douglas met the next day, as they had already planned, for lunch. Knowing something was not right, they found where he lived ( in a loft downtown, he told me, he lived alone and worked on his art 13 or so hours a day, when not teaching). They got a maintenance person to check and indeed, he was there, he had died apparently of a heart attack.

It’s taken me weeks to absorb and believe the truth.

Every phrase I carry with me (“I believe in the versatility of processes”) and when I squeeze a gorgeous Williamsburg King’s blue from my tube, eager to swirl it on, I stop, recalling his advice: “No paint straight from the tube.”

That weekend I went to see the Diebenkorn show in Orange County. I stood in front of a large canvas with pastel colors melting into each other, physically crushed by the memory of Franklyn. All the layers, the scrubbing and erasing, yet leaving traces—the LA Times calls it “pentimento”, I am overwhelmed by all that I want to see, to learn , to create.

i have an email from Franklyn, he said, “I have some ideas for your collages”…and I still can replay his voicemail, on my iphone, “I will call you, I have some ideas you may like. The last thing he said on that message was, “it’s all a mystery.”