Process

Section of a 21st Century Ice Age Recurrence

1986
Cast concrete and LED light with stuffed rat in polyester
48 x 15 x 15 inches
Stuffed rat is frozen in mock ice. Red neon glows from behind.
Collection of Richard Linklater
(Destroyed in the 2011 Texas wild fires)

I was given a rat by a Houston pet shop—it died of natural causes that day. I had earlier requested the next one that passed on for this project. A taxidermist gave me some tips and formaldehyde, and I went to work immediately. The sculpture is a piece of one possible future. The aged condition of the stone indicates that this occurrence came many years succeeding the signature dated in the concrete. Ironically, it was destroyed in a wildfire resulting from the severe Texas drought of 2011 in the Bastrop home of film director Richard Linklater, along with Blood Of A Mentor: Cultivator Of Humility And Benevolence.