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(#147) CATE SCHOOL:

Edition of 2831 of which 150 copies are signed 1-150; 26 are signed A-Z as artist's proofs; three sets are signed as progressives and one is signed as a dedication copy.

May 31, 1991 9 colors 17" x 24"

Art Direction: Betty Franklin McLeod

Client: Cate School, 1960 Cate Mesa Road, Carpinteria CA 93014. Telephone (805) 684-4127 A-Z: Artist's own use Dedication copy: Scott & Betty McLeod Progressives: One set to Cate School

Labor day is here and that means summer is over. Time to get new clothes and a box of pencils with your name on them, a new lunch box and thermos (which will last about a week and then get dropped and you'll have one day of soup 'n' glass and then just sandwiches and boxed milk for the rest of the year) and the wonderful smell of new books. Even if they're full of drivel, they smell good. Get to meet all the new kids, re-meet the kids from last year who are pretty much the same but a little bigger. Though, from sixth grade on, they can change dramatically over the summer. You come back and voices have changed or are changing, everybody's taller and the girls have bosoms which they usually do their best to hide. Guys spring unpredictable boners and can't stand up without embarrassing themselves and girls can leave the classroom without asking permission.

Streets full of little scampering kids in new schoolclothes, the smell of Autumn in the air and the Septembersound of schoolbusses on the streets. The round begins anew. It's going to be too bad when year-around school takes away this special time of year. It'll just be another normal part of life. I accept that it's reasonable, and that the summer vacation imposes a great burden on parents-especially working couples, which is what most families are nowadays, unless they're single mothers and have no slack at all-but still, how sad not to have that long reprieve from responsibility and regimentation every year. Nothing to look forward to but endless school followed by endless work. Of course, not everybody gets to look forward to school and work: just the lucky ones. The unlucky get to look forward to re-runs and talk shows, hand-outs and tedium.

Cate School was founded akmost a century ago as a private boys' school: cold showers, long walks and a first-rate high school education. Mens sana in corpore sano.* But times change, and the directors realized that the school had to admit girls or go under. The alumni hated it. The administration was trying to get them to give millions for new development. Insensitive to the entire wrangle, I did a design with a girl student sitting under a tree and reading. Disaster. I redesigned the poster with vague and genderless figures scattered about, but by then other factors had intervened and things became confused. On the whole, without meaning to, everything we tried to do to make things better only made things worse. I don't know how this happens, but every now and then it sure does. Does any of this sound like real life?

* A healthy mind in a healthy body.