These are our walls...

Last week was a long, eventful week.  I forgot about a number of things.  I'll try to remember a few others though.


I met Marlene early in the Winter '12 quarter during a grad student meet-&-greet at Mellow Mushroom. I don't exactly remember that meeting, nor do I recall when she (according to Tai) touched my hair and made some commentary about it.  Since we had a similar type of hair (and hair is a big thing in the Black community) we always had a running joke about being kindred spirits due to that.  Instead of calling me her brother-in-arms, she'd refer to me as her brother-in-hair.

Our rapport, however, had considerably more depth than that.  We took to each other right off, as I'd frequently see her hanging out in the computer lab with two other friends of mine who were work-study technicians.  Marlene and I found that we had other mutual acquaintances outside of SCAD and caught up for margaritas (for her) and chips & salsa (for me, since I don't drink) to talk about life, love and photography.  That was near the end of Winter and I was really flattered that she was already familiar with my work from outside of SCAD.  I had assumed I'd be a completely unknown quantity.

Over the months that followed, Marlene and I would talk and text often.  She was constantly cluing me in on people I should know or meet in the local arts community, places I should check on, opportunities I should look into, etc.  As I'm older than she, it would be wrong to say she viewed my like a little brother, but it was a sibling-like rapport and though I didn't know her as long as others due to my time here at SCAD, we had grown comparably close as friends.  

This was a constant theme in her life.  She affected many others in the same way.  Dru, Justin, Deidra and Tai who know her longer and better than I feel the same way of her, as do others who didn't know her as well.  It's a tough loss within the dept and for me.  I've lost a friend who had only begun to enrich my life, someone who I assumed I would share many more experiences within my career as an artist and I in hers.  I'm still very stunned.

Yesterday, there was a guerilla-style memorial to her on an unused wall next to a print lab.   Huge prints of Marlene's tacked up salon-like.  I don't know who did it and judging by how it was put up, I know that SCAD will pull it down.  But I thought it was awesome.  To me, it said "Here's someone who meant something to us as students.  This is our dept.  She deserves our respect.  We love her and knew her talent and she deserves to be featured.  In our school.  Because these are our walls."

I don't know who did it and I don't want to know.  It doesn't matter.  I'm sure the school will take it down and paint over the holes.  I hope whoever did it the first time does it again.