Fromteeththroughtom
Materials: Antique dental equipment, cotton cord, jute cord, old window shade springs
Dimensions: 7’L x 3’W x 8”D
Year 1980
Fromteeththroughtom
I met a dentist at a friend’s party who was talking about his new office in Yorktown, NY, and his excitement about buying a rya rug to hang on the waiting room wall. Rya rugs were popular at the time. I engaged him in a conversation and asked him if he had ever considered a piece of sculpture instead of the rug. Finding him interested, I suggested he consider something original. We agreed for me to visit the office and talk. I visited his office and during our conversation he said that his partner had a big collection of antique dental equipment in the basement. I asked to see it and upon looking around found a few pieces that I said I could incorporate into a piece. They were both very excited in my doing so. I was very excited about using these materials and this being my first real commission.
I worked on the piece for a couple of weeks and at got stuck at the midpoint of the work. I was talking with my wife’s cousin Tom about the piece and the problem that I was having. Tom who is blind and who I taught to do macrame said he would like to “see” it. One afternoon during a visit I had him stand up close to the piece that was hanging from my living room ceiling. I stood behind him, took his hands in mine and started showing him the piece from the top. I wanted him to get a sense of where I was moving. After a few “showings” and a little wine and other stimulants, he asked me to leave him for a while. A half an hour later he said that he felt he knew how I should proceed. After he explained it to me, I worked on the piece for 17 hours and finished it.
I brought it to the office and told the two dentists, the receptionist, and their nurse to leave me alone while I hung it. The waiting room was about 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. As one entered the room from outside you were at the desk and as you turned around, the piece was hung at the far end of the room on its blank wall. There were two ceiling floodlights aimed at the wall. It was very dramatic. When I finished, I told the receptionist to tell them I was finished. The four of them entered the room, walked about halfway towards the piece, and just stood there without saying a word. I finally asked what they thought. One dentist said he had no idea how powerful the piece would be, and nobody said anything else. Realizing that they were having a hard time “digesting” it, I said that they needed a week or so to get used to it and that I would check back in a couple of weeks. I said goodbye and left them all standing there starring at it. Three days later the dentist called me and said he had to speak with me. When I got to the office, he told me that the piece was just too powerful for them, and they could not leave it there. One patient told him that she could not have him work on her teeth after sitting in the waiting room for 2o minutes and looking at it. He asked me to take it down and put it into the basement. I said that I would not put it where it would get moldy and ultimately be destroyed. I said that I would take it with me and sell it and work out an arrangement with him since he already had paid me a whopping $200 for it. He agreed.
I was very fortunate to get it back. Instead of selling it, I won two awards at prestigious shows and it now hangs at our Cape House. So the name. No, it is not a Native American name. It was named to reflect the process: from teeth, through Tom (Fromteeththroughtom). And by the way, other than the cord, all the other items in the piece are pieces of antique dental equipment.
