ART AS ANODYNE FOR A YOUNG PATIENT: A Girard Anecdote
Master of Mud (aka artist) and former Center for Creative Studies (CCS), Detroit, professor of art, Bill (William J.) Girard Jr., passed away in 2011. The website created to honor him is found at https://girardsvasari.com/ ------------------------------------------------------- Anecdote and image shared by Carl P., 2019, and used with his permission. Detail of Untitled Sketch. Artist: Bill Girard. Royal Oak, MI. 1940-2011. Bill (Girard) was a very special person indeed and also my cousin. In 1972, as a teen fascinated with things that went boom, I suffered an accident making homemade firecrackers which nearly blew my left hand off… Multiple surgeries later the hand was salvaged… It was summer, 1974, and I was lying in a Detroit hospital bed recovering from what I believe was my 12th surgery in a little over two years. Ironically, perhaps, it was the evening of July 4th and from my window, I could see flashes of color in the night sky that told me the annual