SETH

Helping the lovely Manzella family build a bike shed when they lived in Lyons, CO. I still think about Seth nearly ever day.

Claes Oldenberg (Jan 28, 1929 - July 18, 2022)

Claes Oldenburg was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his (often playful) public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects.

Seth Bossung (March 3, 1968 - Feb 1, 2021)

I love this picture of Seth from elementary school - there’s so much of older him in his younger eyes. I think we would have been friends at this age. Lots of love to everyone today.

Seth Bossung (March 3, 1968 - February 1, 2021)

Thinking about everyone connected to Seth and extending big hugs today.

July 2008

Sarah Weddington - Lawyer/Political Figure (February 5, 1945 - December 26, 2021)

At 26 years old, having never tried a legal case, Weddington successfully argued ROE vs WADE in front of the US Supreme Court in 1973. Read more here.

In the late 80’s, while in college, I was fortunate enough to hear her lecture about how she became involved in the case and it’s aftermath. This picture (taken around that time) is how I remember her.

First Parish Church (Weston MA)

It was an honor to be invited to and to participate in a service for my best friend Seth Bossung, over this past weekend. This 150yr old New England church felt like the ideal place to connect with his family, friends and his roots.

l'Arc de Triomphe wrapped by those honoring late artists Christo & Jeanne-Claude

I’ve seen Christo’s drawings of this for years - so good to finally see images of this project being realized. In the link (below) there is a photomontage (sketch) of an early wrapping idea in 1962.

The Arc is covered by 25,000 sq metres of silvery fabric, secured by 3,000 metres of red rope and fulfills one of the many life-long proposals of Christo & Jeanne-Claude, who were best known for large-scale wrappings and other massive site-specific artistic interventions.

Lots more excellent images/information here.

2019

S E P T E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 0 1

Charlie Watts (June 2, 1941 - August 24, 2021) UK

The drummer for the Rolling Stones, a band I would not fall in love with until college when I stumbled upon a studio version of Sympathy for the Devil that was from a Jean-Luc Godard documentary. Seth Bossung and John Cooper had the tape lying around in their vast and eclectic music array - from which, I made a mixed tape and it was one of my favorites for many years. Watts by all accounts was not only the steady and reliable background percussionist for the Stones but also the sweetest and loveliest of the bunch. A friend who was lucky enough to spend the day with him said he could not be more kind and in fact inspired him to not give up on drums, which he did not give up on.

LARRY LARS

Over the weekend, Piper and I attended the memorial for Lars in Almont, CO (near Crested Butte). We saw and spent time with many familiar (and new) lovely people (maybe 150 or so). The memorial (which was under a large outdoor shelter) was beautiful and simple, mostly it was friends and family getting up and sharing stories, reading poems, recalling memories, etc. with some common threads - Lars had a thirst for adventure, his creativity and problem solving were deeply admired and he had been so generous and thoughtful to so many with his time and energies over the decades. Lots of laughing, lots of tears and some more tears.

I read the poem below that I had written.

Cutting Board Lars made for us for our Wedding

…and inscription on the back. We’re planning to serve snacks on it tonight.

’74 Plymouth Scamp

Greg Burns and I had been living in NYC in the early 90’s and after 2+ exciting years there it was time to move on. A few months before departing, I called Lars (who was in Fayetteville AR with Lisa) and let him know my plan was to head their way and asked him to keep an eye out for a cheap car and I’d pay him back if he found me one. He said his grandmother had just given him an old Plymouth and it was mine if I fixed up houses with him for 2 weeks. I ended up driving to St. Louis with friend Kate Dunn and from there, shipped most of my stuff ahead and rode my bike the rest of the way to Fayetteville. When I arrived, Lars gave me a big hug and handed me the keys and said, “The Golden Chariot is all yours”.

After loving working on houses with him and his derelict (and awesome crew) for a couple weeks, I drove all over the mid and southwest for the rest of the summer visiting family and friends eventually making it to Lars & Lisa’s wedding in Greeley CO. After all my visits, I ended up heading back to fix up houses with Lars and the gang for another year. It was there that I started thinking about architecture school and the direction of my life slowly began taking shape.

I will miss him dearly and hope wherever he is he’s driving around, giving rides in a golden chariot and then passing the keys along.

Note: Today Piper got her 2nd Pfizer shot, arm feels sore but all’s good otherwise.

Taken around 1996 from the garage of the Larimer Place (3358 Larimer).

"Band Saw” 1/3 2nd edition - Lars Bickford (early 90s)

This wood block print was made from a feathered board, it’s used to help reduce “kickback” when feeding material through table saws and other power tools. I always loved that Lars likely pulled this out of a woodshop trash can and reused it as a carving plate. I mounted the print on the bottom of an old drawer I used to transport cassette tapes around in in a ‘74 Plymouth Scamp he had given me…that will need to be the next entry.

This hangs in my office.

Lars Bickford (November 1, 1962 - May 31, 2021)

Another tremendous personal loss for me, as well as, for a community of creative, positive forces in the world.

Lars and I were friends for 6-7 years before we started bigfishdesign in Denver in the mid 90s after we had worked together renovating houses in Fayetteville, AR. He pushed and inspired me to explore art, boatbuilding, woodworking, design and countless other things, for which, I will forever be indebted.

I’ll miss his art burning sales, his (unfinished) boat destructions, his ability to turn a house priming task into a massive mural (before painting over it), his determination/ability to fix anything, his nasally laugh and his giant hugs.

The details of his death are still unclear - it sounds like he was biking with friends (in Crested Butte, where he lived) and at some point turned around - maybe it was a bike accident but waiting to hear more. I will update as information comes in. My heart goes out to all of his family, friends and anyone lucky enough to have known him.

UPDATE: It sounds like it was likely his heart and that there were no signs the fall was responsible - the thought is…it was quick. Here’s a little more from the Crested Butte News.

Please feel free to reach out if you need to talk.

These pictures were taken in a bakery in Fayetteville, AR 1993 (and that is good friend Kate in the background)

This is a self-portrait Lars made after discovering some 110 photographs he had taken in his late teens. He had been a gymnast in HS and early college. The iron-cross (from the rings) was a recurring theme/image in his work. Notice how he used concrete, wood, glass, photography, solder and sewing to make this.

S e t h B o s s u n g M e m o r i a l 0 3 . 0 3 . 2 1

Here’s the screenshot captured by Bradford Akerman from the night of the memorial which he generously shared. In the body of the image, Dave & Brynn Manzella were conveying their relationship with Seth (Cindy, Fae & Lowa) before their (beautiful, funny, poignant) family song played.

Brad commented when he studied this picture he felt the care of the community from across the country and pointed out ’those lovin’ eye’s’ as more evidence.

Thank you everyone for helping and/or joining. If you were unable to attend or would like to view it again, here is recorded Zoom link.

Seth

Here’s the bike Seth built. I believe this experience was a birthday gift from Cindy (his wife).

Memorial Idea

First pass at site specific memorial for Seth, Adam and Andy. I’m thinking it could be 3 large cairns (markers) and a long line of rocks/sticks between the Opus hut and where these friends last skied. The materials would be from the avalanche detritus. I image it being restacked/aligned over time or just evolving into something else potentially.

Greg Burns, Nico Brooks, me and Seth Bossung

Emily and I were married on June 21, 2003 up in Tabernash CO. Seth and Greg were my best men and Nico (Emily’s cousin) officiated. We explored seeing if we could make Nico a ship captain but settled on some universal minister certification for the day, I believe.

Seth had said to me years earlier (when we both were working at a Sanborn (summer camp ‘89) where we met) …”Just laugh, no matter what.”, just before he did a skit with another counselor (which was actually super funny). At our wedding, just as I had started my speech, I heard Seth laughing (very loudly and in support) in the crowd - it made me remember what he had said at camp and consequently made me lose my place, which turned out to be momentarily unfortunate and soon after quite funny.

I’m not sure how many times he was in the role of best man at friends’ weddings but I’ll wager to guess it was at least 5 times.

Always sharp, always funny, always encouraging, always thoughtful and always the best. Here is tribute article that helps explain even more the kind of guy he was.

Andrew Goldsworthy

Seth and I had conversations (not infrequently over the years) about the power of ephemeral art. My initial thoughts about how to memorialize Seth, Adam and Andy is to make something Goldsworthy-esque (over the summer) in the area where he and his close friends died. Something that will require revisiting over time to either reassemble or make anew. Something that will surely be a group project. Something subtle. Something beautiful.

Seth Bossung, Andy Jessen and Adam Palmer

I expect our hearts will be tender for some time.

Here’s an article from the Vail Daily about Seth Bossung, Andy Jessen and Adam Palmer. It also has links to GoFundMe drives to help support their families.

“The red line marks descent and the blue lines mark the avalanches. The large avalanche on the left caught the group of skiers and also caused the small avalanche on the right to release sympathetically.” [Photo] CAIC/Telluride Helitrax