Thursday morning was a little bit of a blur because Teri Stafford and I returned late from Texarkana the night before. We had a faculty meeting at noon, the last faculty meeting of the year, and we were able to cover a number of agenda items in a very efficient way. Thanks to all my colleagues for a wonderful academic year. I could not do this job without your help and support. I am grateful for all the guidance and encouragement you have given me over this academic year.

After the faculty meeting, I left for XNA to fly out to Jackson Hole, Wyoming which was the site of my last LSAC Board Meeting. And as you know if you follow the blog, I have been involved with LSAC since I was a baby professor in 1994. I was brand new and non-tenured, so it was a bittersweet moment to actually think about the last Board meeting. My flight was a little bit inconvenient, but I wanted to stay in Fayetteville long enough to attend the last faculty meeting. Because of this, I had to fly from XNA to Dallas, Dallas to Denver, and Denver to Jackson Hole. The flight from Denver to Jackson Hole was on a little propeller plane. I arrived about 10:30 p.m. at night and there were no taxis waiting. In fact, the security guard had to call a taxi for me.

The taxi company that came to fetch me was called Red Neck Taxi (which, as you might imagine, didn’t give me much comfort. But the night security office explained that it’s just the name of the company and he wasn’t sure why it was called that). My driver was a very interesting character. It turns out he had a lot of knowledge about Jackson Hole. He had moved there from Denver and he liked it very much. He shared some of the history of Jackson Hole. One of the most interesting things he told me about was how, because we were right in the middle of migrating season, lots of wildlife was either on the road or right up next to the road. In fact, I saw quite a bit of wildlife on the drive to the hotel. To get to the hotel in Jackson Hole you have to drive through town and go around. Then you had to go back behind the airport to get to the Four Seasons, which is where the Board meeting was being held. After arriving at the hotel, it was time to hit the sack because our Board meeting would start at 9:00 in the morning.

The Four Seasons was a very beautiful hotel, with a major art collection. Among the artists represented are Reginald Marsh, Alberto Giacometti, and Romare Bearden. Born in Paris and growing up in New Jersey, Reginald Marsh attended Yale and then Art Students League of New York, supporting himself as an illustrator for the New York Daily News, Harper’s Bazaar and many other periodicals. He produced more than 4,000 illustrations for the Daily News alone. Marsh used contemporary subject matter in his work to depict urban life in all its tawdry aspects. His fascination with the human crowd was entirely individual for an artist of Marsh’s time. Marsh is best remembered for his Depression-era work, remains the most significant artistic figure of the genre in the United States, and has been the subject of major retrospectives.

Alberto Giacometti was born in Switzerland, and his father was a Post-Impressionist painter. Giacometti studied painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and sculpture and drawing at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers in Geneva. He traveled to Italy where he was impressed by works of Alexander Achipenko and Paul Cézanne and was also deeply affected by African and Egyptian art and by the masterpieces of Giotto and Tintoretto. Settling in Paris, he occasionally attended Antoine Bourdelle’s sculpture classes and found himself in the Surrealist circle. He became known for his work in the area of lithography. In 1965, Giacometti’s exhibitions were organized by the Tate Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek in Denmark, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. That same year, he was awarded the Grand Prix National des Arts by the French government.

Romare Bearden was born in North Carolina. Soon after, his family moved to New York City’s Harlem where their apartment was just across the street from the stage door of the Lafayette. This location would forever influence his work as an artist who looked to music – jazz and the blues – for many of his subjects. Paintings also emerged from his memory and experience of the South – of gospels and spirituals sung in church, and of blue notes bending through warm nights. Painting also emerged from his life in New York – the sophistication of bands playing Harlem clubs, and the excitement of crowded dance floors. He has also used collage to express the rhythms of black music. Bearden was profoundly influenced by the civil rights movement and has done much to promote opportunities for black artists.

One very special note: my assistant Terri Yeakley became engaged to Jason Huckleberry on ThursdayTerri Engagement morning. It’s very, very exciting. We wish them both the very, very best! Needless to say, the law school community is very hapy for them, really embraces them, and is excited about their engagement.

In addition, I’d like to say farewell to Stan Adelman. Stan has been an adjunct at the law school for a number of years and he leaves us to go to Albany Law School in New York where he will teach Torts and Sentencing/Correctional Law in the Fall, and Criminal Law and Bail to Jail in the Spring. Farewell, Stan. Thanks for being a great colleague over the years. We will miss you.