Homage to a Mentor and Amazing Artist

Rest in peace Christian Schiess
May you light heaven up like the Vegas Strip with your magnificent neon sculptures.

I am feeling emotional as I tidy my studio. I got word yesterday that an amazing mentor has passed away. This man taught me how to make neon and I got good enough at the craft that he invited me to exhibit with him at the K Gallery in 2021, twenty one years after I took my first class with him.

We were very different people. I embraced imperfections and he loathed them. I would ask him to bombard a piece and he would look at it wrinkling up his nose while asking me… “Do you want to tighten this up?” I replied, “No, then people will know I made it and not you.” He was a perfectionist but he laughed at my response and best of all he accepted ME for me. We developed a friendship and mutual respect for each other. 

After losing my other amazing mentor Henry Hopkins in 2009, it’s bittersweet. It reminds me how important it is to teach - to pass the torch on that these amazing men each once passed to me. There just simply isn’t enough time.