It was the summer of 1967, I had no specific plans. I had graduated but I had made no plans to go to college. It didn’t cost much to go to college in California, it was free at all the state schools. You did have to apply, you had to see a counselor, you had to ask.

I’m the guy that took the bus but never transferred, because I didn’t know how that worked, and I didn’t know how to ask.

For years I took the No. 72 line bus to Berkeley, but then walked up University to Telegraph Ave, I didn’t know the right bus, or the right fare, or how to transfer. I also knew the L line to the San Francisco Terminal, but I had to walk from there.

Getting to the admissions office at any college was impossible without help, because I never asked.

So when fall came, I went to the library to “study” for six hours. I went to the last stack, and pulled each book, skimmed the contents and then read about a third of the shelf. Then I went to next shelf, 12 shelves to a stack, eight stacks to a row.

That fall I finished two rows, that was about 360 books. In between I looked at current magazines. I found a Gallery magazines that promoted new up and up coming artists. One article featured Jesse Allen. I was mesmerized. I was certain he was going to be great, because I knew what great art was, I had been to museums in San Francisco, I had seen books. Jesse Allen was new and on the edge to be important.

It was the first time that I considered that it was possible for me to have a career making images. Of course I had to start making them seriously. I had only sketched a few things on butcher paper, and colored them with chalk and Indian ink.

And I was still making them very small, almost as if my arm was paralyzed, even my hand paralyzed, so that only my fingers moved.

I knew something was not right, but I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t know how to ask.

Where was YouTube?

So I would copy Jesse Allen’s creatures and plants, out of context, very small, and detached, like floating in space. I liked them!

Life went on and every now and then I would check in on Jesse Allen. People stopped writing about him, but he was selling enough to keep going. He never became super famous, but he made a living make images and selling prints.

The span of time increased between my investigations. Evently I even got a job making images.

I had almost forgotten his name, and had to play the alphabet game to come up with Jesse. It’s probably been twenty years since I last looked at his work.

He is still doing the same work with more care and maybe with more detail.

I found a copy of his piece that he did in 1968 that had stirred something in me.

I decided to do a tribute piece of that work.