SOJOURN TO SLIPPERY ROCK

SOJOURN TO SLIPPERY ROCK

By Andy Weddington

Monday, 24 May 2021

I broke something and realized I should break something once a week to remind me how fragile life is.  - Andy Warhol 

During the late 60s and early 70s the Saturday afternoon NCAA college football scoreboard program (CBS, as I recall) typically closed with mention of the Slippery Rock score; usually the Rock came up short.

In those days my world did not extend much beyond the Piedmont of North Carolina.

We thought Slippery Rock (State College) fiction - a made up school and football program to end the show on a lighter note; mission accomplished, we laughed.

In the mid-80s I met a girl; outside the boundary of the Piedmont.

She graduated from Slippery Rock.

I laughed! 

Then explained Slippery Rock of my youth.

Karma. 

We married a year later.

It took another 35 years to finally visit Slippery Rock. 

Thursday past evening we walked part of the campus and from one vantage point could see the football stadium. 

Life's big picture.

I'll get back to Slippery Rock.

Friday morning while descending from the 7th floor gallery I learned Andy Warhol was Catholic and held strong faith, albeit privately, throughout life.

Somewhat familiar with Warhol and his art I did not know that particular tidbit about him. 

Like his art or not he was a mega star - for his art, business savvy, and flamboyant lifestyle. He was a world famous celebrity. Too, he was human; like the rest of us. 

Born in Pittsburgh, his museum on Sandusky Street is worth the visit - interesting; but I did not find mention he'd ever been to Slippery Rock much less the small college town's modest Catholic church. 

What intrigued me most about Warhol's art was not his vibrant pop art (e.g., Campbell's soup cans, Brillo pad boxes, silk screen portraits, et al.) but his drawing - simple, clean, the essence; the power and beauty of line.

 

Andy Warhol Museum

Gallery wallpaper

For drawing is the foundation, the (bed)rock, of art (painting). Else, painting, of any sort, is on a slippery slope.

And those thoughts occupied my mind meandering along Washington's Trail back to Slippery Rock.

Not 24 hours after learning of Warhol's faith, I sat in a pew - St. Peter Roman Catholic Church, Slippery Rock. The surroundings - simple altar, stained glass, Stations of the Cross - familiar from youth and altar boy duties.

Family and friends congregated to remember a woman - Slippery Rock graduate, patriot who spent a career working with veterans at a nearby VA hospital - called Home on time; but too soon for the earthly who loved her. [I met her once - September 2019.]

Clad in coat and tie, small sketchbook and Sharpie in left inside pocket.

Warhol's line on mind. 

Too (on mind), Hemingway's sobering six-words short story: For sale. Baby shoes. Never used.

Warhol drew and painted death. Shot once, he came close.

Hemingway wrote of death. 

Feeling a record important, discretely, simple lines.

Barbara 

2 x 2.75 in.

A six-words short story, to complement, came to mind: Barbara - St. Peter Roman Catholic Church.

And for (more) context, a couple more (of more than a dozen) ...

Rev. Adam M. Verona, STL

Celebrates Mass

(Barbara foreground)

2 x 2.75 in. 

St. Peter Roman Catholic Church

Slippery Rock, PA

2 x 2.75 in.

Near service conclusion Father Verona burned incense. Tradition. Blessing remains. Though irony not lost on me. 

Broken hearts of Barbara's kin and Greek family (AST sisters) I saw and heard.

In the fall a return to Slippery Rock (town and now University) - to visit new friends, draw, and maybe go to a Rockets football game; and pray for a win. 

And so ...

Fragile is life. 

Fragile is line.

Each starts and ends; sometimes with breaks.  

What counts is the beauty between; otherwise, what's the point?! 

Forward march, Mark and Luke.

Rest in peace Barbara Jean Gaudio Taylor - 27 December 1962-22 January 2021.