It was oppressively hot and humid during the two and a half days I drove south to Chicago and west through Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana, my final destination. I drove to Chicago to visit friends before heading west. My first major stop after leaving Chicago was Iowa City. Visiting Iowa City has been on my list for a few reasons.
One :: I designed book covers and a complete book for the University of Iowa Press years ago. I’d never met anyone from the Press because I worked with them remotely, so I only knew their voices, their phone numbers, and random professional stuff. I’d been curious to see their campus because I like having an image in my head of where people are when I’m on the phone with them. Whether they’re sitting on an open porch, in a tall office building somewhere, or in a space with clear sight lines to the campus quad. Sometimes if I know someone well enough, I’ll ask what kind of room they’re in and what’s around them. I didn’t have that conversation with anyone at the Press, but now I can imagine what their day might have felt like walking through campus.
Two :: Steven Holl designed the fine arts complex on campus and I planned to see the building while I was there. I’ve only visited two other buildings of his in person, the addition to the School of Architecture building at the University of Minnesota, and a chapel in Seattle. When I arrived, the buildings were locked, but I could walk around the outside and take pictures. I tried my best to remember what the inside was like which wasn’t impossible, because I’d seen interior photographs in an architecture magazine. Afterwards, I googled co-ops where I could grab dinner and other supplies for the nighttime leg of my drive through the rest of Iowa and Nebraska. I found one near the university, drove there and spent over thirty minutes wandering the aisles making my selections and absorbing the sweet, familiar co-op smell.
Three :: I had a professor in undergraduate school who taught painting and drawing and later moved to Iowa City. I took a two-hundred level painting class from him and a year later he advised a friend and myself in a video and performance art independent study. Occasionally, he called me ‘birdman’ and compared me to Buster Keaton. I was confused by both things and it felt oddly intimate since we didn’t know each other very well. At some point during the quarter he said, "your paintings look like they’re painted by a right-hander. I was defensive at first. As the days passed, I realized they did look like they’d been painted by a right-hander. I had a lot of diagonal strokes from upper right to lower left. I began to question how I was physically painting and how my brush strokes enhanced or detracted from the images. I always appreciated his observation. I don’t remember anything else he said about my work during that class, but I remember that.
Songs :: (Cross the) Heartland by Pat Metheny, Sunshine in Chicago by Sun Kil Moon, Secret Journey and Voices Inside My Head by The Police, The Blue, Wide Open by The Crystal Method, and Summer Madness by Kool and the Gang
© C. Davidson