Wood Relief

Tom Schlanker
Wood Relief

The photograph Frank Lloyd Wright is the first photo I purchased from Pedro Guerrero after meeting him in 2002, at his home in Florence, Arizona. Shortly after moving to Arizona, I knocked on his door and we became good friends.

It wasn’t until 2008 that I was able to exhibit the first retrospective of the photos of Pedro Guerrero at Promega Corporation. We celebrated Pedro’s 91st birthday at the reception, with at least 600 admirers in attendance.

In 2009, we exhibited the carvings of Tom Schlanker at Promega. I commissioned Tom to do a relief of Frank Lloyd Wright based on Pedro’s photo and took the carving to Pedro on my next visit to Florence, Arizona. I told Pedro he would either love the carving or sue me for copyright infringement.

As you can see from my photo of Pedro, he indeed liked Tom’s work and posed beneath his copy of the same photo at his home. I’m unsure if he consciously posed the way Wright did in the photo, but Pedro did happen to be wearing a fedora that day.

Honoring Pedro Guerrero was my proudest moment as a curator. Since his passing last year, one week after his 95th birthday, I have missed my friend and cherished our friendship.