Saturday, November 04, 2006


I met Schoffman in 1980 when he was living in Brussels. If I remember correctly, he had graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design a few years prior to our meeting and was living in Europe doing research on Hans Memling. We were introduced by the Flemish sculptor Vin Van Toefl. Van Toefl was working on a huge commission from the University of Nijmegen and was employing as assistants artists who could arc weld. You might say that it was in this context that David and I first bonded.

David got fired first. He was, in truth, a terrible craftsman and would accidentally spot-weld his ladder to any and everything in close proximity. I got fired for breaking a bottle over Van Toefel’s head. Schoffman and I soon found ourselves sharing a studio in a warehouse above a waffle factory.

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