Taking Stock

The semester begins in a couple of weeks. And as I prepare for my 38th year teaching at the University of Iowa, I've taken stock of the things essential to maintain, as far as skills I practice regularly. I maintain drawing a couple of times a week, and sometimes it's simply a sketch. Welding five to seven hours a week. Riding my bike at least twelve hours a week.

I have two new doctoral students and four M.A. students.

As a professor I’m committed to the revitalization of handmade, with a focus on the value of craftsmanship. We are made to be creative and to make things that engage our being in the world. I consider myself an adventurer who designs and builds bicycles. A bicycle is an exquisite way of exploring a landscape. Adventuring in wilderness is a knowledge process. The concept “design, build, ride” centers on designing, then building, then riding a bicycle for a specific wilderness and purpose.

What I tell students is that pursuing a high level of conceptual competency and skill proficiency is essential to sustaining an integrative practice that merges creativity with experiential knowledge. Every bicycle idea I have comes from riding, every drawing I do returns to teaching students, and executing fabrication enables conceptual innovation.