Terence Faherty

From the mid-80s through the 2000s, I was heavily invested in the fan community surrounding crime and mystery fiction.  Besides collecting 6,000 crime fiction novels, reading a zillion crime novels, leading a crime fiction book discussion, writing five books about crime fiction, authoring zillion articles and zine entries, I was able to be chair of EyeCon'95, the first national gathering of the Private Eye Writers of America and the co-chair (with Theodore B. Hertel, Jr.) of Bouchercon'99, the world mystery convention.

All of this would mean nothing if along the way I had not made friendships that bond.  An example of that is that Ted Hertel and I who were friends and fellow mystery aficionados when we decided to work on Eyecon'95.  Ted was the vice-chair of that event and we had a blast.  Going into that con we said if we were still friends afterward we would consider hosting the world mystery convention.  What we discovered is that we were better friends after Eyecon'95, went on to have a marvelous time hosting the world in 1999 and we are still best friends.

I will be the first to admit that one of the charms of being a dedicated crime fiction fan is meeting the authors of the books that I so enjoy.  For twenty years I attended the conferences like Bouchercon, Left Coast Crime Conference, Magna Cum Murder, Murder and Mayhem, Mystery Writers of America workshops and other events.  This meant a lot of repetition so that the authors would see my face a lot, making it easy for me to becomes "friends" with the creators.

Photo credit:  Paul Chaffee

One of those authors is Indianapolis author Terence Faherty (http://www.terencefaherty.com).  Terry is New Jersey born but migrated to the Midwest as a technical writer in the early '80s.  His career as a crime fiction writer began with the publication of the short story "As My Wimsey Takes Me," collected in First Culprit (Chatto & Windus, 1992).

Terry is the author of two great crime fiction series.  The first is the Owen Keane series.

Deadstick, St. Martin's Press, 1991

Live to Regret, St. Martin's Press, 1992

The Lost Keats, St. Martin's Press, 1993

Die Dreaming, St. Martin's Press, 1994

Prove the Nameless, St. Martin's Press, 1996

The Ordained, St. Martin's Press, 1997

Orion Rising, St. Martin's Press, 1999

The Confessions of Owen Keane, Crippen & Landru, 2004

Eastward in Eden, The Mystery Company, 2013

Owen is described by the author as a failed seminarian turned amateur sleuth.  What I have always said is that this series pushed from just entertainment into literary contribution to crime writing.  There is an elegance to Terry's writing that guides the reader's eye and the reader's mind.  These are novels of philosophy as well as detection.

Being a fan of Hollywood, film noir and movies in general, Terry's second series is a movie fan boy's dream.  This series features a Hollywood fixer named Scott Elliott.

Kill Me Again, Simon & Schuster, 1996

Come Back Dead, Simon & Schuster, 1997

Raise the Devil, St. Martin's Press, 2000

In a Teapot, The Mystery Company, 2005

Dance in the Dark, Five Star, 2011

The Hollywood Op, Perfect Crime, 2011

Play a Cold Hand.  Perfect Crime, 2017.

Besides all the great Hollywood news and trivia buried within the stories, each one is a tale of trust because Scott works for a boss who only shares what he wants to, often leaving our hero in a quandary as to what is the right path to take.  These are also love stories as the relationship between Scott and his gal Ella are complex and moving.

That leads to the point of this blog:  the last Scott Elliott novel, Play a Cold Hand, has this dedication:

For Ted Fitzgerald, Ted Hertel Jr., and Gary Warren Niebuhr

Ted Fitzgerald (Ted the Younger) lives in Boston and is a fine writer and critic of crime fiction mysteries.  Ted and I have shared many a mystery con adventure and he is a fine gentleman, scholar but what I like best about Ted is he has a bit of the rogue within.

Ted Hertel Jr. (Ted the Elder) is my best friend.

Me?  I am a guy who often wonders about all the cool things that have happened to me during my life--this being one of them.  I wanted to say thanks in a special and unique way so I looked at my "new"hobby for the answer.

Since setting aside crime fiction fandom to become a found object assemblage artist, I have been studying with artist Michael deMeng (http://www.michaeldemeng.com) since 2007.  As life would have it, Michael began a series of pieces about Edgar Allan Poe in 2018.



What cracked me up was how much Micheal's work echoed the Edgar, or the annual award given by the Mystery Writers of America which is crime fictions equivalent of the Oscar.

So, the three amigos decided to commission Michael deMeng to make a thank you to Terry for his dedication to us.

I began talking about friendships and how much they mean to me.  To have my crime fiction fandom friendships intersect with my assemblage friendships means to much to me.  So I will end with my own thanks:

To Terry, for being a great writer and sharing your art with me

To Michael, for being a great artist and sharing your art with me and Terry

To Ted the Younger, for just being you

To Ted the Elder, for always having me back.

The Poe as it rest in Indiana among Terry's other awards

Kate Church in Mineral Point

Building Sculptural Character

Kate Church

September 24-29, 2017

Sunday, September 24, 2017

I have art due at the Art Mill in Grafton, WI. for an upcoming show called The Art of Collage and Assemblage curated by Frank Juarez.  I had submitted three piece of work for the show and they were accepted so off I go to the Art Mill to deliver the work.  When I get there I am joined by my friend Josie Osborn and Gail Willert who are there to deliver work as well.  I notice they each have one piece to deliver and this is where it got a little weird.

Frank introduced himself and then told me that through a clerical error they had never told me which piece to bring as every artist is evidently going to have one piece in the show.  He asks if I could hang around until his coordinator John showed up and then they would decide.

After John showed up, I walked away so the two of them could adjudicate without me prejudicing the decision.   Here is where it got weirder--they decided to take two which I think means I will be the only artist with two in the show.  It is embarrassing a little but on the other hand my huge ego made me grab the rejected third piece and I ran for the door.

ACCEPTED

ACCEPTED

NAW!

So now I am able to turn my attention to getting to Mineral Point for the workshop meet and greet tonight.  Since it is about noon at this point and I don't have to be to Shake Rag until 4:00 p.m., I decide to blue highway it a bit by driving directly west on 60 and then turning south on 23 which gets me there around 3:30 p.m.

Jackie was in the office at Shake Rag called the Coach House.  I am sleeping in Room One upstairs and it is easy to unpack.  Then I went over to the Smeja Studio building which is across Hwy. 23 from the Lind Pavilion and meet Kate Church.

Kate Church has been making art doll for more than 25 years.  She lives in Nova Scotia, Canada.  She has worked for Mermaid Theater and created art for Cirque de Soleil that was based on their characters from their shows and sold as art during the productions.  Here is a picture of one of her works, Ryder and Crow, from her website:

The workshop starts at 4:30 p.m. with an orientation and welcome discussion.  We all got to introduce ourselves.

Next we walk to the home of two Mineral Point residents and friend of Sandy Scott, one of the owners of the Longbranch Gallery.  Laura has prepared a wonderful chicken dinner for us and we all dig in.  This entire night bonds the group to each other and makes in clear that Kate Church is going to fill our week with cool thoughts.

Here is the class description for Kate Church's workshop:  "She will show YOU how to have fun building unique character, sculpting with polymer clay and cloth over lively wire armatures, producing a figure with a unique life of its own. You will learn her method of placing energy into a figure and focusing on the sculptural form and how to get inside it. You will create TWO interacting figures in this 5 day workshop."

Above is one of Kate Church's class samples.  Our first goal is to learn to sculpt faces in polymer clay.

It took me a few to get going but I really like these face that I call The Dead.

Kate provided us with pre-sewn pajamas for our characters. 

I would work at night on an extra for the class--an assemblage stage for my characters.  This guy got his own grave to dance on.  

The grave gets a coat of paper so it can be painted

Here is the paint and some nails

Each costume has an internal structure that allows the characters to stand on their own

 At the end of the week, the class was able to gather and have a show and tell.

My quartet of heads

My ballerina

My Flesh is a Grave With Nothing Inside

When I got this piece home I decided I needed to add some things to the mix.  I felt like the piece needed a backdrop so I added a metal fan to give it a backdrop.

I added a nail fence with wire to compliment the nails on the side of the box. 

Here is the quotation on the front of the box which reads "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

I decided to enter My Flesh is a Grave With Nothing Inside into the 2017 Museum of Wisconsin Art Once Upon a Members' Show where it won Best Sculpture.