“Often language gets in the way of understanding form and space or pattern, but the challenge for me as a teacher was to use both,” [Mason] told me. “I always liked teaching, just for that simple reason.” 

Stories about Mason’s long pauses, followed by thought-provoking remarks, abound among his former students. But many—including James Turrell and the late Chris Burden, internationally renowned artists who studied with Mason at Pomona—admired him as a man of few words who taught by simply being “a real artist” and letting them learn from their own mistakes.”