The back of the stone featuring the space reserved for roaming stone code. The color scheme reflects John's favorite football team, the New York Jets
Detail of the placement of the stone (November 3, 2022)
Detail of placement of the stone outside the Myers School of Art at the University of Akron (November 3, 2022)
This stone was made in memory of my friend, John Puglia, who passed away nine years ago. In the early 2000s, I introduced myself to John after coming across his m-80 zines which he self-published and sold through local record stores. He was the only person I ever met whose passion for and DIY approach to making art surpassed my own. Over the next decade, I jumped at any chance I had to work with him and his m-80 zine assembling parties, where we’d spend an evening drinking and packaging his latest zine along with various inserts and gimmicks, were always a blast.
So, why does this stone feature the TCB logo made famous by Elvis Presley? All I know is that when I worked with him at a marketing agency where he was the creative director, he would present a plaster bust of Elvis every month to someone on the team and make them sign their name on it, and I believe it was the “TCB Award” so the logo sort of became associated with John.
Any of the hard-copies of his work in my possession have been digitized and posted online at johnpuglia.com so head there if you’d like to check-out some of his artwork.