Jerry Pethick, known to many as a sculptor and multimedia artist, succumbed to brain cancer at his home on Hornby Island in July of 2003. For the homegrown holographer he will forever hold a place of honor as the originator of the “sand table”. In 1969 he received a U.S. Patent for his “Sand-based stability system for Holography”. He was a founder with Lloyd Cross of the San Francisco School of Holography, the first institution to offer independent workshop courses to the public. The sand table was born of necessity as an integral part of creating holograms in the school setting. In addition he played an instrumental part in mounting and showing very early holographic artwork in some of the first notable holography exhibitions.

Curator Annette Hurtig described Pethick’s art career in this way:

Jerry Pethick began making art in the late 1950s. His early artwork was sculptural, and he is often still referred to as a sculptor. But Pethick’s interests and pursuits extend well beyond the confines of any single category or discipline. From the beginning he pursued several related avenues of research, investigating optical physics, for example, and theories of visual perception. As well as making art, he contributed to the development of, and knowledge about, visual imaging technologies. Indeed, Jerry Pethick’s scientific and epistemological inquiries are inseparable from his artistic activities

Throughout the holography community his students and fellow artists remember him as a unique character. Fred Unterseher, a seasoned holographer in his own right was a sculpture student of Pethick’s at the San Francisco Art Institute. He remembers being among the small group waiting with Pethick for the arrival of Lloyd Cross in the Bay area. Soon after Lloyd’s arrival they banded together to form the San Francisco School of Holography.

Pethick was certainly an innovative artist. His enthusiasm for problem solving in novel ways was infectious. One of the first flyers to announce courses at the school was created using a child’s discarded vacuum forming machine, Jerry found. He used clear butyrate plastic for the flyers, silk-screened the graphics and vacuum formed 3D spacemen into the plastic. They were eye catchers and were all gone by the end of the same day they were posted. The on going physical construction of the school itself was always an enormous challenge, considering there was often no ready cash and at the first site no running water. Jerry and Lloyd together were unstoppable; in true bootstrap fashion they devised one invention after the next to meet the confrontations. Their solutions were not only clever but also improved upon from one location to the next. Function was foremost so ”thinking outside the box” was always the order of the day. To separate sand table studios they devised curved interior walls out of 1/4 inch particle wood panels and black plastic sheet covered the ceilings to control ambient light (this innovation migrated to the New York School of Holography along with the sand table). Even the legal fees for the formation of the school were bartered, in exchange for painting the lawyer’s office. Jerry had a passion for problem solving with such creative and innovative flare that he seemed to be ”in the “flow” perpetually.

Although he is largely unknown to many holographers, he has touched their lives and he continues to, through the numerous proponents and publications that have advocated the spirit of homegrown holography and the use of the sand table.

Artist Margaret Benyon met Jerry early in her career, she shared her remembrance in the following statement.

It saddened me to hear the news that Jerry had died last year. He rang me from the Chelsea Arts Club the last time he was in London, and if I’d known it would be for the last time I would have made certain that I got to see him. We met only about three or four times a long time ago, but we kept in touch with each other all our lives. His obituary published in the Toronto Globe and Mail was absolutely spot-on. To me he was such a big, wild, warm-hearted, shambolic, generous spirit and that rare thing, a real artist.

Thinking back to when we first met, it must have been at around the time that we graduated from art school in London in 1964: myself from the Slade School, and Jerry from the Royal College of Art in London. I visited the Walmer Road studio that he shared with Ed Pickett, who told me that the staff at the RCA had difficulty deciding whether he was a genius or an idiot. He came to the opening of my first show in Nottingham in 1969. I remember he told me that it was the world’s first solo exhibition of holograms by an artist, and got very excited about it, in fact so excited that he got thrown out of the pub afterwards. He had formed Editions Inc with Lloyd Cross in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the first gallery of holography, and in 1970 they organized an exhibition at the Cranbrook Academy, and at the Finch College Museum in New York, in which I was able to take part simply by mailing a hologram.

I have an etched diffraction grating of his, one of the most interesting individual uses of embossing that I’ve seen—a crude, blotchy, blobby drawing of the lighthouse on Hornby Island where he lived, as seen through a window. It looks like a monoprint, as if he’d printed onto a piece of clear thin transparent film in rainbow ink: the areas of the drawing remained as diffraction grating, and the rest of it was etched clear and see-though. Such work was consistent with his larger explorations of virtual and material space using lenticulars, fly’s eye lenses, and a great number of recycled materials. His sand-table invention was entirely consistent with the use of scrap materials in his art work. Jerry did not make many holograms that he exhibited as art: the huge list of works in his Marking Time CD produced in 1998 in collaboration with Peter van Riper lists only two works** using holography. However, he will be remembered for the part he played in the history of holography through his sand-table invention and at the San Francisco School of Holography, and by those who knew him for his larger-than-life personality.

John Pecora
holograms3d@yahoo.com

About the author
John Pecora is a computer specialist and a certified Microsoft Systems Engineer. He made his first holograms using a sandbox holography kit in 1980. He has worked for holographic companies making photoresist holograms for embossing. He is now an amateur holographer fabricating his own DCG emulsions. He has always liked reverse engineering, and enjoys taking an idea from concept to final product.

Here are some tips for saving money on ‘lab’ equipment. It is surprising how many everyday objects can be used effectively in holography. These are just suggestions. Please remember that it is your responsibility to pay attention to safety, and use common sense.

• Heating pads used with three or more settings can be used as adjustable heaters for processing trays. Simply put the heating pad under the tray and turn the pad on to the desired setting.
• Black foam board can be used for blocking stray light. The type that is black throughout is best as the edges stay black even when they are cut. This material can also be used for making an iris.
• A shutter can be made from most old 8 mm movie cameras. They have a low voltage electric shutter. Remove this unit and set up a circuit with the original voltage of the camera, and a switch.
• A thick piece of glass, 1/4′′ or thicker, can be used as a beam splitter. Using the thick piece of glass allows a small piece of electric tape to be placed over the glass to block the secondary reflection off the back.
• Sandwich boxes can be use as processing trays and also as storage for the chemistry without having to pour the liquids back into bottles after each session. They come in many sizes and shapes with airtight lids. Store sealed containers with chemicals in a dark, dry, cool place when not being used.
• Rubber inner tubes can be used as the dampening mechanism between a holographic table and the support legs.
• A slab of granite can be used as a holographic table.
• Most old overhead projectors contain large front surface mirrors and large Fresnel lenses. They can be purchased at yard sales and flee markets for just a few dollars.
• Most photocopiers and fax machines contain front surface mirrors.
• New Jefferson Nickels have a weight of 5 grams and new Lincoln Pennies have a weight of 2.5 grams. Standard paper clips have a weight of 1 gram. To verify the weight of the paper clips put a nickel on one side of the balance and find 5 paper clips of the same size that equals the nickel. These can be used on a balance for measuring out chemicals.
• A hair dryer can be used to dry a piece of holographic film or plate after processing. Drying intensity and heat is variable with very inexpensive dryers.
• Polarizers can be found in polarizing sun glasses. These can be used to slightly modify the intensity of throughput laser light by inserting it into the beam path and rotating. They can also be used to compare the polarization of light at different locations in an optical set-up.
• Two pieces of window pane glass and binder clips can be used to sandwich a piece of holographic film. This will hold the film rigid and flat.
• A microwave can be used to heat the deionized or distilled water needed for mixing up processing chemistry. But please be careful to keep chemical-contaminated containers separate and secure. One method is to heat the water in a clean container in the microwave and then pour it into the chemical container for mixing, always keeping the clean container free of any chemicals.
• Two-part, fast-hardening epoxy is great for securing two pieces of metal without the need for drilling and tapping. This also allows the disassembly with just a small sharp blow to one of the pieces.
• A pinhole can be made by sandwiching 5 or 10 pieces of aluminum foil together and poking with a pin while the pile is on a hard piece of rubber. Each piece of foil will have a slightly different size of pinhole.
• Automobile windshield wiper blades can be used as a squeegee. If you epoxy two blades to a pair of scissors then, when the scissors are closed 3/4 of the way, you can squeegee both sides of the film at the same time. For plates this is not necessary as you can do one side at a time with a single blade.
• Clothes pegs on a line can be used to hang up films to dry. After clamping the film at two corners with the pegs, clamp two more at the bottom corners to keep the film straight while drying.
• Dishwasher drying agent can be in place of Photoflo^TM in the final rinsing bath. Use an agent that does not have fragrance and, preferably, that is clear.
• Sodium carbonate can be purchased cheaply as a chemical for increasing the pH of swimming pools and spas.
• Sodium bisulfate can be purchased cheaply as a chemical for decreasing the pH of swimming pools and spas.
• Sulfuric acid can be purchased as car battery acid. Most formulas call for concentrations that are lower than that sold as auto battery acid.
• Black Sanford Sharpie markers, which come in different sizes, are ideal for blackening optics, mounts and anything small you want to reduce reflections on. They are permanent markers that write on almost anything.
• Paper Mate^TM liquid paper correction is great for painting objects for holography. It dries to a flat white and diffuses the light very well.