Synopsis Eunice is a portrait of my good friend Eunice (Van) Vavra. The video was shot a few months before her death. I couldn't bear to edit or post the video for some time after she died. Now I enjoy watching the piece, remembering many conversations and events at her home in Austin, Texas. The piece is to honor Van's memory, and to face my own mortality, ideally with the same integrity and grace that Van faced her own mortality. For viewers that didn't know Van, I hope that the opportunity to look at her wrinkled face and to have her look at the viewer will encourage a moment of questioning about life, actions, aging, and dying. American society typically places little value on the wisdom age and experience provides. Even Van wondered out loud why such "youngsters" would want to be her friend. But Van's life experience and her ability to overcome tragedy with a positive attitude continue to inspire. Biography Peter Tucker is an artist and art professor in Western New York. He was raised in New York and Oklahoma, and spent most of his adult life in Texas. He has a BA in Psychology from Oklahoma State University, a BFA from the University of Texas and an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art. His work has been shown in galleries across the county and is in the permanent collections of the Blanton Museum of Art and the Library of Congress. Peter says about his work: “By sharing a playful attitude of exploration and questioning, I hope to provide reminders of the beauty around us, the wonderful quirkiness of our world, and to create for the viewer a moment, however brief, to pause, wonder, question and participate.” Exhibition List 2012 This I Find Beautiful, various locations, NY Art of the Instagram, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA 2011 Chain Letter, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Sight Lines, Octagon Gallery, Westfield, NY Artists & Models: Rapture/Rupture, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY Then and Again, Marion Art Gallery, Fredonia, NY 2010 Snap to Grid, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA Ordination Station, Strohl Art Center, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY 2009 Old Goat/Spring Chicken, Michael C. Rockefeller Arts Center, SUNY Fredonia, Fredonia, NY 2008 Infinite Spaces, Collaboration with St. Edward’s University Orchestra, Austin, TX Utopia, Pump Project Art Space, Austin, TX Salon, Fall Faculty Exhibition, Creative Research Lab, Austin, TX Photocommunications Faculty Show, St. Edward’s University Fine Arts Gallery, Austin, TX Legacy, Parts & Labour, Austin, TX 2007 Works 11/07: Interaction as Play, Salvage Vanguard Gallery, Austin, TX Spectacle, Parts & Labour, Austin, TX Faculty Salon Exhibition, Creative Research Lab, Austin, TX SOL-Art, Austin, TX 2006 At Play, Creative Research Lab, Austin, TX Word!, Rudolph Projects & Artscan Gallery at Vine Street Studios, Houston, TX What I Like About Texas, Polvo, Chicago, IL Faculty Salon Exhibition, Creative Research Lab, Austin, TX 2005 Blue November Micro Film Festival, Tulsa, OK EdgeWorks Film Festival, Corpus Christi, TX RENGA: Regeneration, Collaborative Public Art Installation, Austin, TX Cracks in the Pavement, Austin, TX Resuscitate Resistance, Cinematexas, Austin, TX Tucker, Peter, Closet Space Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, TX 2004 Sprout, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX New American Talent, Arthouse, Austin, TX (Catalog) Parallax View, Cinematexas, Austin, TX The Independence Show, The Young Republic, Dramos Studios, Houston, TX North Cottage Salon, Austin, TX 2003 Toposaurus, Public Art Installation with Ruth Stanford, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA Erotica, Gallery Lombardi, Austin, TX Aspect Premiere, Art Interactive, Cambridge, MA Cyber Lounge, the Gallery at Green Street, Boston, MA Altered Time, Altered Space, Boston Cyberarts, Doran Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art Thesis Exhibition, Paine Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art (Catalogue) 2002 Massaging Media, Art Technology Experience Conference, Boston, MA Witness and Response: September 11 Acquisitions at the Library of Congress, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Reactions, Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA Haystack Mountain School of Craft Annual Exhibition, Massachusetts College of Art Midway, Huntington Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art Reactions, Exit Art, New York, NY 2001 Society of North American Goldsmiths National Student Juried Exhibition, 1000 West Broad Gallery,Richmond, VA Mas! Mas! Mas! Por Que? PorQue? Por Que? Gallery Lombardi, Austin, TX