This work is pressed from bisque ware molds I made from parts
of my bike, which is a purple 1989 Fuji Odessa. In June 1989,
my parents gave me some money toward a bike for my birthday. I
saw this bike in the very first bike store I visited, Campus Bikeways.
It was the perfect size and had big knobby tires and was a "cross
bike" which was a popular new idea at the time, something
like a cross between a mountain bike and a city bike. That meant
it was urban enough that I could afford it, yet dirt-bikey enough
to hop curbs. Besides all of that, it was purple. It was perfect
for me and I came very close to buying it on the spot.
Then I worried that I was being sucked in by the fact that it
was purple, so I decided to be responsible and visit a bunch of
other bike stores. A half hour later, while walking to the second
bike store, I got hit by a car. Four months later when the cast
came off my leg, the first thing I did was check out a bunch of
other bike shops, then go back to Campus Bikeways and buy the
purple Fuji I saw first. There has to be a moral to this story.
Perhaps it is always buy the first purple bike that you see. I
rode it to work year round for several years. When it was snowing
or cold, people at the office thought I was brave and athletic
and perhaps crazy, which is ridiculous because for one thing,
biking keeps you really warm and comfy and for another thing,
it took less time and effort to bike to the door of my office
than to drive and park the car in some $10 ramp. Now I haul clay
and pottery and children around for a living, so I ride my bike
a lot less, relying instead on a 1998 purple minivan. Looking
back, I am pretty sure I remember that we bought the first van
we looked at! |
