Back in art school at one point we were assigned a project where we had to pair-up and build some kind of “artist’s environment’. I was working with Stretch (now a successful sculptor) on this all-wood creation that can only be described as a jungle gym for midgets. It had different levels and towers, a plank, and this 
piece of metal and wire fencing that hung from the ceiling via cables. I had become accustomed to working on this thing as a team every night, but Stretch would always knock off at his discretion. Usually about 9:30 at night.
One Monday I received my check from home ($50.00 a week, man) and decided that I would just get a bag and hang out in my dorm room listening to Kansas and smoking myself into a coma. Stretch got wind of my plans and got bent out of shape over this. I informed him that I had earned this moment of sloth due to all of the evenings he decided to cut out of the project. At some point one of us threw a black vinyl chair down the hallway at the other and a fist fight ensued.
We punched, wrestled, and bled our way out into the stairwell eventually, where Stretch grabbed the back of my head and smashed it into the concrete stairs. I blacked out briefly, then came up swinging. Several people broke up the battle, and it rendered a nice gash above my eye that was oozing blood and just kept on giving. The first thought that ran through my head at that point… “I need a cheesburger.” I still don’t know why, but I proceeded right down to the cafeteria, went through the line, and took a seat at a table amongst students and faculty. “That looks so real, Kipp” – Everyone thought it was some elaborate performance art piece or something. Our instructor at the time informed me that I should go to the hospital immediately and get my head sewn back together. He handed Stretch a five-dollar bill and told us to go to Dairy Queen to make up.
So let it not be said that art is for sissies, man. I still have the scar to prove it. Stretch recently dropped by my house in Iowa to visit. He owns a nightclub and other property in Kansas City and has made quite a name for himself as a sculptor with work all over the globe.