| LETTER FROM JIM LOFTUS TO BOB MORSCHES
This letter was sent along with slides of
Andrew's work. It has been slightly edited to remove small sections that are not relevent
to this site.
Dear Bob,
Jim Meyer was here this past weekend and we looked at
these slides of Andrew’s paintings. I knew they were good, but this time I saw more
clearly how outstanding Andrew’s paintings and drawings are. He and I often talked
about contemporary painting and how much of it seems to lack any sense of spirit and
emotion. Those two qualities are what Andrew had so much of, and it shines out from his
paintings.
An artist and friend of mine, Kazuaki Sugi, saw
Andrew’s show at St. Ben’s. I hadn’t described Andrew to him, but after
looking at the paintings he asked—was Andrew a very loving sort of person? That
question says something about the clear expressiveness of Andrew’s work. The other
thing that shows clearly in his work is that he painted what he cared about—simple
objects like bread and tables, nature, animals, people and the farm. And all of those are
seen and painted through the filter of his emotions. His work communicates that he cared
about those things and that he cared about seeing, painting and drawing.
The slides are numbered in the order (as well as I can
remember) that they were painted. Most and probably all of the drawings were done in the
past year. I don’t know when though, so they’re not in sequence.
The paintings of farm animals (slides 2, 3,4) and the
brown, black and white abstractions (slides 5-10) were painted simultaneously. He painted
the abstractions in Gordon Goetemann’s class and the animals in his independent study
with me.
The titles are mine and not Andrew’s, and
shouldn’t be thought of as titles. Instead, they’re just an identification of
the subject matter. Also enclosed are the addresses of Andrew’s friends, and the
paintings that they chose.
I think about Andrew all the time, and Rob, Dave and I
talk about him often. He hasn’t been forgotten and he won’t be.
THE LAST THING
The last thing I remember
About you is your
Clunky boots dancing lightly
Across the top of granite, grave-markers—
You smiling at those stone-faced,
Cranky, old men.
The last thing I knew
Of you was the
Rock-hard car that crushed you
As you pedaled across Highway 75.
I pray that you were laughing
And looking the other way.
Tom Voller
PAINT THE SUNSET
download it here
You sat in your chair
With your eyes wide open
Staring into the future
I think you even knew when
You painted the fury
Trapped in you soul
You looked at broken pieces
And saw them as whole
So paint the sunset for me Andrew
I know it’s not too much for you
You showed me a way to be true
You showed me how much I have to do
The visions you must have had
Trapped in your head
Are slowly revealed
By what is written and said
How lucky for us
That you finished what you began
Yet how sad we are now
That you’re no longer a man
So paint the sunset for me Andrew
Let the colors dance and play
No need to worry about the line now
And there’s so much more I want to say
We find out now
What you never said
We find out now
Why the sky has turned red
You found the truth
And away you flew
Leaving us to find for ourselves
That which you already knew
So paint the sunset for me Andrew
Or paint the calm before the storm
Your energy will never be lost
It has merely changed its form
So paint the sunset for me Andrew
Or paint the moon and stars
When you waved goodbye and took your turn
We didn’t know that you were going so far
We didn’t know that you were going so far
Words and music copyright©1988 by Dave Cofell
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