The Bowdoin Orient

Dave Raskin ’13Dave Raskin’s life has always been colored by music.

Raskin was raised in a musical family and was introduced to the piano and clarinet at a young age. He claims, however, that he didn’t become serious about music until late in high school when he first picked up the bass guitar.

Upon his arrival at Bowdoin, it was only a matter of days before he found others with whom to share his music.

Sarcastic readings of the NAS report, life lessons from Calvin and Hobbs, and Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols’ rendition of “Oh The Places You’ll Go” were just a few of the selections read aloud at this year’s Loose(r) Leaves event.

Students and faculty read passages from published literature at the annual event, hosted in Burnett House on Wednesday.

Associate Professor of Film Studies Tricia Welsch started the communal readings 12 years ago. The meetings were initially held monthly in Baxter House, where Welsch once served as faculty advisor.

Danish artist Per Kirkeby is a world-renowned renaissance man, known primarily for his geologically inspired paintings. He also, however, identifies as a sculptor, filmmaker, architect and writer.  

“Per Kirkeby: Paintings and Sculpture” opened at the Bowdoin Museum of Art on March 26 and currently dominates the entire second floor of the museum. The exhibit showcases approximately 45 of Kirkeby’s works in a variety of mediums.

Klaus Ottman, curator at large for the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. and co-curator of the Kirkeby exhibit, introduced the Bowdoin community to this contemporary artist’s work with his lecture titled “Per Kirkeby: Subjective Thinker, Anti-Artist, Historical Painter” yesterday afternoon. 

At least once each semester, a student in Visiting Assistant Professor Meggan Gould's introductory photography class apprehensively approaches her with a manual camera in hand and asks the question: "I see dust and scratches on my viewfinder. Are those going to show up in my final photos?"

"His name is Paul Handler and he's my studio assistant," said artist Mara Sprafkin '02. "The only problem is he's fictitious."