Clearing the issue
In your October 7 Abode supplement, you featured the ways we have been experimenting with glass in our house over a long period of time ["Lighten up"]. We wanted to point out that the complexity of the research as well as the difficulties in designing with and fabricating these glass and metal installations required a more intense collaboration than might be expected. Ryan Hughes, a former student and now design and construction partner, has been crucial to all phases of the work done over the past three years. His development of sophisticated computer modeling techniques to effectively represent this elusive material has made all this work possible. Since his ideas have been so much a part of the work including most of the fabrication and installation, we thought it important to have his role acknowledged. Architecture is such a complex undertaking that it is important to recognize how many voices are part of any successful design. Thank you for your article that captures so well the intentions of the work.
Robin Dripps, Lucia Phinney
Batesville
Artistic expression
This thanks is retroactive to your decision to run my photo "Demoiselles" in support of my appearance at Gravity Lounge on September 20 [GetOutNow, September 16].
I applaud your editorial decision for reasons that transcend the obvious thrill of seeing one of my works reprinted in the pages of your paper. You had the focus, dedication, integrity and bravery to make a decision you felt was one that upheld and supported the spirit that is the lifeblood of all true art, regardless of any political or social repercussions I’m sure you all knew you’d face. Congratulations. That’s what I do every minute of every day as an artist and a poet and it’s tough work. Good artists keep on and the idea that other people could get something of value from our work is rewarding. A brave artist has the power to rub off on other people and remind the unsuspecting viewer/reader/listener that they, too, have it within to be true to themselves at all times and at all costs, whether they’re working on a painting or working on a family.
You’re all a bunch of great artists in my book and create a fine American publication to boot. As for [letter writer] Rachel R. Albertson ["Parental advisory," Mailbag, September 30], she might be relieved to learn—as the creator of said piece of art—that my version of "Les Demoiselles D’Avignon" is not, in fact, pornography.
Andy Friedman
andyfriedman@verizon.net
Define "endangered"
"Bleeding green," which was reprinted from Mother Jones magazine in your September 30 cover story, "Not necessarily the news," states in part: "Average annual number of species added to the Endangered and Threatened Species list between 1991 and 2000: 68.4. Number voluntarily added by the Bush Administration since taking office: 0."
My response to these facts is simply this: President Bush has all intentions of signing into law the banning of partial birth abortions, thus taking the first step toward protecting an endangered species (which I suppose has not even made the list). I would think that it is certainly the one endangered species that we as human beings, should be most concerned about.
Carol Scampoli
Palmyra