Behind the Syllabus: Erling Sjovold

What do you do during the weekends?

I tend to the intricate and shifting schedules of my four children. In between, I work in the yard, paint in the studio and prep for classes. When the stars align, I relax with my family; we may even go to Bev's Ice Cream.

What's the craziest thing you did when you were in college?

By Berkeley standards I cannot claim to have done anything crazy in college. However, I put a brick of cheddar cheese in the snow just outside my tent while camping in Yosemite on winter break. Not very crazy until I suddenly awoke in the middle of the night staring into the face of a coyote an arm's length away. Its head seemed huge biting into my cheese, which was now its cheese. I'm reminded of the Far Side cartoon where the bears look at the campers wrapped in their sleeping bags and say, "MMM ... sandwiches!" My campmate and I knew better to string up food. If we put out the cheese in order to lure a coyote or bear that would have been crazy. We were just lazy ... but thrilled.

What's one thing your students would never guess about you?

I'm a Norwegian that doesn't ski and a Southern Californian that doesn't surf.

Fun Fact:

Upon graduating from Cal, I worked as a laborer/carpenter where I learned a bit about building houses and lyrics to Johnny Cash songs. The contractor had a psych degree from UCSB and worked on a personal project, designing and later building, an electric car from scratch. The carpenter/cabinet maker had a lit degree from Reed. I learned some valuable woodworking skills that helped me as an artist. I also learned more about Freud, Pynchon, etc., when lunch breaks ran in that direction. It was a unique continuation of my liberal arts education, with more humor than a traditional curriculum. We remodeled one residence that had a stellar pop art collection including a blue-chip Rauschenberg from his "Hoarfrost" series. It must have inspired me because the contractor commented on my work, "I don't think I've ever seen a more beautifully stacked dumpster." I quickly saved enough money to bicycle around Europe for three-plus months.