Weeds: Jon Rubin

Weeds
A PROJECT BY JON RUBIN

Introductions by the 1st-year MFA students were going smoothly with each of us making a brief slide presentation and distributing to the others single-page copies of our Purpose: who we were and who we wanted to be. Optimism reigned. COMMUNITY.

As I remember this time, twenty years ago, my-soon-to-be-good-friend Jon Rubin arrived late (just getting into town?) and introduced himself last. He spoke briefly and then handed out a piece of paper that was nearly covered with random dots. A closer inspection revealed the dots to be the letter “I”; he had cut-out and congregated all of the “I”s we had used from our written Introductions. Most of the students seemed put off by Jon doubting the romantic view of the artist as the solitary figure. Art-making was new to me and I thought this thinking was engaging.

The next day Jon dropped by and asked if he could make my work for me while we were in school together. I am sure my jaw dropped. Huh? I still smile thinking back about our times together and how Jon’s thinking still influences me.

-David Estes,

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