I LOVE SCULPTURE
The next day, after Craig was signed, Bernard dropped the hammer on RAD. He explained he now had an ironclad exclusive with Lendskip, and not to use any of Lendskip’s work in any advertising or he would sue.
Adding Lendskip to the gallery was pure genius. He had added a breath of fresh air to the gallery that had been missing since Basquiat. In fact it took the last Basquiat selling to have enough money to insure there was plenty of money to purchase anything Craig Lendskip sculpted. Lendskip’s reputation from RAD was that he was very slow. He didn’t make many pieces. Often this type of gallery talk is just propaganda. Collectors think they are buying something that is rare if not many pieces are made. As it turned out, it was true in Lendskip’s case. It was as if old Johnson had taught him the art of being patient as well as the love of twine. Lendskip was never finished until he meticulously numbered each piece he constructed, signing all of them with a small, almost invisible C.L. somewhere on one of the balls. This final step alone could take up to two weeks to perform, depending on the number of twine balls involved.
Craig Lendskip would scrutinize every piece of yarn as if it were a cardiac stent whose form was critical to the patient’s survival. Each strand was caressed between his hands, and then slowly manipulated into a fine string once the diameter was small enough to suit Lendskip. He would then work it between his thumb and index finger, first licking the whole length of string with his tongue, then sliding it between his digits for the final preparation before making one of his sculpture balls.
The tens of thousands of hours of yarn manipulation had caused his fingertips to lose their identifying ridges. Literally he had no fingerprints. It was as if they had been erased. His tongue also had been transformed. The repetitive sliding of the twine had formed a large, smooth groove running at a right angle to the body of the now meaty tongue. He could pull numerous strings through the groove in rapid fashion wetting the yarn perfectly, never lacerating the tongue muscle, similar to the Apache Indians who used the hard, spiny devil’s claw plant in making their fine basketry. The huge callus gave Craig the hint of a lisp due to the nature of the slightly deformed tongue muscle, which also accentuated his Minnesota accent.
As promised, for every piece Craig brought in, Bernard wrote a check for the full old RAD retail value. The number of balls that were involved, and their relative sizes and complexity determined the price. Craig was very happy in his new arrangement. What he didn’t know, was that the contract he had signed was not in his best interest. It did call for a 10 percent raise of his prices yearly as promised, but it also gave Bernard an ironclad exclusive for all his sculpture, twine or not. In the fine print, Bernard had inserted legalese that he had the power of attorney in case of any catastrophic injury to Craig. The sculptor had no parents or anyone of real significance in his life, so he figured it didn’t matter. If he were that incapacitated, he wouldn’t care. All he asked was if something unexpected happened to him, Bernard would be sure to send one of his pieces back to the museum in Darwin, Minnesota, housing the Johnson Greatest Ball of Twine Museum.