The Molten bronze. Deeply alluring. All of us transfixed. Tom told us that it wasn’t about that. It was about the work. He said “Do your work”. That was our mantra. But we all felt it, all of us, when the crucible was on the floor. The mass absorbing the heat from the silicon carbide, up another hundred degrees. We the Sculpture graduate students on the SIU campus were gods and goddesses. We didn’t need a pyrometer…the temperature of the metal was evident by sight alone. We all took his philosophy too…the Eliade, the Sacred and Profane, Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex. I’m not sure why he had us meet for class so early or why he never stayed in the pouring area to watch the metal cool. What an educator. Walsh gave generations of sculptors their futures in aesthetics. I still remember meeting him in the foundry for the first time. He asked me my age I told him I was 24. That was about it. He’d seen my work. He chose us carefully. When it came down to it, I understood after I followed his path and became a professor myself, teaching foundry, building a studio based on his, that he was, really a shy man. I also followed his path to the American Academy in Rome. He was a Rome Prize recipient, I was a visiting artist. I was so proud to see his work there. Everything about Walsh was a beautiful gift. To have his discipline, the honing attention. He pointed the way to a life, those of us who were strong enough and committed enough followed. 

It’s been a great adventure. Thank you, Tom !