Professor Bohne, ladies and gentlemen.

So, I'll probably blog some about fun art professor stories. The department may be small here, but all of the faculty are absolute characters. They are all fun, intelligent, and exceptional at what they do. One person that may pop up on here a lot is my wacky and fantastic sculpture professor, Bill Bohne.

He is crazy, random, kind-hearted, extremely well-versed in all things music, says anything and everything in a complete deadpan, and is a packrat of the highest order. Some days in class, he will pull things out of one of multiple storage rooms and come in touting them like an auctioneer. Things that range from bundt pans from the 60's, army-issued gauze, a Harley Davidson beer can (mine now!), mannequin legs, stacks of promotional CDs, and, one time, two cassette recordings of a BBC interview with John Lennon. (Unfortunately, I didn't get my hot little hands on those.) Most class periods include burning incense and listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn or the Ramones. If we're lucky, he'll bust out the Prince cassette and dance along.
He is very fond of "field trips". Our intermediate class only has 6 students, and he took us somewhere around Green Bay at least once a month. Usually it's Goodwill or St. Vinnie's to get supplies and materials for pieces, but there is an equally good chance that it's any sort of little diner-y dive-- like Chili John's, or Zesty's for ice cream. If there's one thing Bohne loves as much as art and music, it's food. To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, he took us to El Azteca and bought us all the best mexican food I maybe have ever had. He squirted a lime on us, told stories about his travels to Rome and jogging past condoms in Vatican City, and lied to the staff that it was Alli's birthday so she would get free dessert and have to wear the giant El Azteca sombrero. He claimed it was her graduation present, as she's the class' only senior that went out to eat, but we're all pretty sure he had his eye on that sombrero the minute we walked in.

I seem to be taking after Bohne myself, and he couldn't be more pleased. Every class, he makes a point to ask me what I found on the street that day-- I usually come in with tree branches, old books, pinecones, random things from Goodwill, or bags full of crafty things from Michaels. (Only the tree-byproducts I bring in were anywhere near a street, thankyouverymuch.) I love that man like a batty grandpa, and he kind of dotes on me for it. Granted, he dotes on everyone, but he goes out of his way to bring me old magazines and walking sticks he's carved out of tree branches from his backyard and so on and so forth. I have to mention my absolute favorite thing he's given to me: a small, leather-bound book about the studies of Homer. It's tattered and yellowing, and inside the front cover is a thin calligraphy inscription in latin, dated 1911. I was floored when he insisted I keep it.

I can't wait to take more classes with him-- he really makes me happy to be an art major. He's like the sprinkles on my Zesty's turtle sundae!

Dear Bohne: please teach all my courses for the rest of my college career. Thanks.

And so it begins...

Ho-HO! My blog life, it stretches out before me to the horizon like a shimmering highway of possibilities!
...By which I mean, if I tilt my head and look past my monitor, I can see a tree out the window and a veritable graveyard of ladybugs on our windowsills.
No matter!
I guess this blog isn't going to be too terribly fantastic or insightful. I'd just kind of like somewhere to occasionally dump thoughts, random crap, any artsy sorts of things I can dig up (of my own doing or just things I like), news in my life, questions, hopes, dreams...
And, god willing, the grandest assortment of fart jokes money can buy.
America, land of opportunity!