Anne-Davnes Elser

~:J O H N • G I V E N S:~

Way back in 1996, I graduated from PC with a good friend named John Givens. Now a designer in San Francisco, John's coming back to PC to give one of those seminar thingies on April 19th.

John's just completed a documentary called Working Title: a 60 minute film that "explores what it means to be an artist in a society that defines you by what you do for a living."

I'm excited because it's been soooo long since I've seen him. John has a great sense of humor - could make me laugh easily and was kind of a brother to me in grad school. He was honest and entertaining. His work had a heavy authenticity to it that made you think and care. He had a thing for texture, a love for the deeper story, an understanding of abstraction. John's a good man.

When we both graduated, John immediately went to San Fran. I interviewed out there and stayed with him and his girlfriend. They were both very generous. John made me the clock you see here. It's a portrait of me, back in the days I used to smoke - during my 8th quarter I got up to 2 packs a day. No shit. So I've got the smoker's mouth, BUT two lovely tulip petals for eyes.

I had just come back from interviewing with Ann Field in LA. She knew pink tulips were my favorite flower and greeted me with a bouquet of them. I nearly cried. I carried them with me on the plane to San Fran and put them in a vase at John's apartment. John saved two of the tulip petals for my clock and on the back wrote, "To Annie: Always Sweet, Occasionally Innocent."