When I started working at the Enquirer reporters really did rip stories out of their typewriters and shout “Copy!” Photographers used flash bulbs and type was set in molten lead.

        Now as I sit at a computer terminal, I recall slamming the keys of an old manual typewriter, pasting pages together into long rolls and sending them down a pneumatic tube to the composing room. No fax. No e-mail. No cell phones, voice mail or Internet. It's a different world.

        There was talk of building a new baseball stadium on the riverfront when I came to this newspaper 38 years ago. Now they're tearing it down.

        There was promise of a new state-of-the-art Contemporary Arts Center on Fifth Street. Now it's about to be replaced by a new state-of-the-art center on Sixth Street.

        I believe I've come full circle, and it's time to retire. I have other things I want to do, and I want to be sure I will have time to do them.

        I came to the Enquirer as a staff artist. The most enjoyable part of that job was drawing spot cartoons for humor columnists Ollie James and Bob Brumfield. I left the drawing board in 1968 to become art critic and book review editor.

        Over the years I've covered theater, home decorating, architecture and various other things. I've had the opportunity to write about Cincinnati history. But visual art has been the constant assignment.

        What a treat it has been to learn about art from the experts. For someone who loves art, the opportunity to tour a museum exhibition before it opens with artists and curators has been an incredible education. To share what I've learned with readers has been a pleasure.
       

Memorable exhibits

       

        There have been many memorable exhibitions, but those that I recall most fondly are some of the first that I covered. Monumental Art (1970) was too big for a gallery. The Contemporary Arts Center filled downtown streets with large abstract sculpture. For a little while, the city looked like a world class arts center.

        Laser Art (Cincinnati Art Museum, 1969) was the first museum exhibition of art made with lasers, and all the artists were local. The CAM followed with exciting invitational exhibitions of local artists, the last in 1974.

        At the CAC, director Jack Boulton invited local artists to create work that could be eaten, a seemingly ridiculous idea that became the most memorable show of the 1970s, Eat Art. Jack put performance art on Fountain Square every August in his D'Aug Days series, and he launched video art in a CAC exhibition that became the United States entry at the Sao Paolo Biennial in 1974.
       

Growth goes on

       

        The early 1970s were special in the visual arts in Cincinnati. There was energy. There was humor. Creativity was encouraged. Local artists were given equal treatment with the major names.

        The number of exhibitions has grown year by year, and many have brought great art to Cincinnati. Treasures from the Tower of London (1983), Masterworks From Munich (1989), the European Masterpieces now at the CAM, have been exciting to see.

        The Taft Museum of Art has brought a constant feast of more intimate exhibitions. There are some to come that I'll regret I won't be reviewing.

        But I've written too many obituaries for friends; for Paul Chidlaw, my painting teacher; for CAC director Jack Boulton; for Weston Gallery director Salli LoveLarkin; and this year, Miller Gallery owner Norman Miller, a good friend; and Bill Leonard, who was CAC director when I began writing about art.
       

Pig Gig really Big

       

        I thought my biggest story would be the Mapplethorpe exhibition and trial at the CAC in 1990. As it turns out, the story that made the biggest splash has been the six-month daily parade of pigs in the Big Pig Gig.

        Ironic, maybe. Silly, certainly. But it was a citywide art project that sparked the imaginations of some 400 artists and brought back some of the artistic excitement that made the early 1970s memorable. I hope there will be more projects to keep that enthusiasm alive.

        There are more working artists in Cincinnati now than ever and more exhibitions season after season. Add theater and music, and you could spend every day of the year enjoying the arts in this city without having the time for a job. That's what I'll try to do.

        Owen Findsen will retire from the Enquirer on Dec. 1.

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