Bits of memory quilted together regarding Lynda Barry:

--We met in fall quarter 1974. Lynda's original goal was to be an art teacher.

--Once, when walking from the dorms to main campus, she spied a dadaist approaching us. Lynda grabbed me and forced us to hide behind a corner. "That man hates everything beautiful about art!" she spat.

--She had some sort of weird power over Matt Groening when he was CPJ editor. Once I witnessed her making a grand entrance into the paper's office and ordering Matt, "I want my picture on the cover of this issue!" And by God, he did it. I swear her photo was in every other issue of that era.

More on the flip...

--Lynda was a natural born multi-talented artist-writer-performer. Spending ten minutes with her was energizing, but beyond that I found myself needing to escape or I would be drained. The only other student I knew who could compete with her for sheer internal energy and fire was Steve Charak.

--For a brief time Lynda wanted to be known as "Plex," short for plexiglass. She used that material a lot when she was the student coordinator for the art gallery in the library. After left-wing art terrorists swiped some art pieces they deemed politically inappropriate (another sign that Evergreen's libertarian climate was eroding as the 70s marched on), Lynda started staying in the gallery to guard the work. She was not happy about it.

--She has a ridge along the top of her cranium, which is why, she claimed, she lived on Phinney Ridge in Seattle for awhile.

--While carrying a real human skeleton across Red Square, Lynda lost her hold and the thing fell and all those brittle white bones shattered across the red brick.

--For awhile she lived in an apartment near the Olympia Library. She called that area "Dogtown."

--She did not get into cartooning until after she had been at TESC a couple years. I believe Matt had something to do with encouraging her to see the comix genre was an excellent outlet for her considerable talent.

--She enjoyed the Old Olympia scene and was particularly taken with the Spar.

--She told me she considered every art piece of hers to be one of her children.

--I saw Lynda a couple times after TESC. She attended a gallery opening in Seattle for another artist. As she went from art piece to art piece, the crowd hung on her opinion. It was amazing. I last saw her around 1985 when she presented a lecture at the WSU Art Department to an enthusiastic crowd. She was a natural born lecturer and in a way had become the art teacher she had always wanted to be.

--On more than one occasion we had long midnight talks about commercializing our art. I always had major reservations but Lynda was not shy about being ambitious. "You gotta hustle, man, hustle!"

And she walked her talk. Hey Lynda, if you're out there, call me sometime.