I just returned from a trip that took me to Chicago, Grand Rapids and Flint in about seven days. Part of that trip was related to a class I am teaching at NMU and part of it was to say good-bye to a friend who lost his life way to soon. Ben Schaafsma was someone I met while in grad school at SAIC. He turned out to be one of a few people who popped up in my life who helped and inspired me in more ways than I can fully explain. In his 26 years he did more for the communities he lived in and for connecting people to art than most of us could ever dream.
As I talked with people at the various gatherings for Ben in Chicago and Grand Rapids, I came to realize just how much time he actually did spend on g-chat, talking art, politics, life, whatever with many many people. After I moved to Marquette, I spent more time on g-chat and had many conversations with Ben myself…thankfully gmail automatically archives these conversations. I was scrolling back through some of those chats and realized how naturally Ben wanted to connect people. I also realized this while on my trip, as I met some of the artists who will be coming to Marquette next semester as visiting artists. I’d only met them over e-mail, at the suggestion of Ben, and was now only meeting them in person for the first time because Ben was gone. It was a strange and overwhelmingly sad feeling, but it inspired me none the less to carry on.
There is a more proper and deserving memorial written about Ben in Newcity as well as on G-RAD.
(From Newcity)
