Obituary

So I never intended this type of entry to become such a re-occurring theme to this blog, but it seems as though I've reached the age where mortality begins to rear its ugly head more often then before.

I received notice yesterday that Richard Carlyon passed away recently. Anyone who went to school with me will remember Mr. Carlyon as an incredibly animated and highly heady professor at Virginia Commonwealth. He was of great inspiration to me and taught two of my favorite classes while I attended VCU. His Abstract Expressionism class brought understanding to an incredibly illusive mode of painting that I have come to appreciate much more. He also taught a class called Conceptual Thinking that had us creating things like Comic Books with no pictures and the like.

Richard was awarded for his teaching abilities and also exhibited his own work. He was honored at the VCU cmommencement ceremony this past December with the Presidential Medallion. His last art exhibition, at the Reynolds gallery here in Richmond, opened last November and closed yesterday. I have to say, that Richards work sometimes seemed like snapshots of things he was teaching...sometimes a bit too influenced by existing modes of art. But that’s not to say he didn't bring his own personality to everything he did.

I'm confident that Mr. Carlyon will be missed, but never forgotten by those whose artistic aspirations he nurtured.