Oppenheim speaks of growing up in Washington and California, his father's Russian ancestry and education in China, his father's career in engineering, his mother's background and education in English, living in Richmond El Cerrito, his mother's love of the arts, his father's feelings toward Russia, standing out in the community, his relationship with his older sister, attending Richmond High School, demographics of El Cerrito, his interest in athletics during high school, fitting in with the minority class in Richmond, prejudice and cultural dynamics of the 1950s, a lack of art education and philosophy classes during high school, Rebel Without a Cause, Richmond Trojans, hotrod clubs, the persona of a good student, playing by the rules of the art world, friendship with Jimmy De Maria and his relationship to Walter DeMaria, early skills as an artist, art and teachers in high school, attending California College of Arts and Crafts, homosexuality in the 1950s and 1960s,
working and attending art school, professors at art school, attending Stanford, early sculptural
work, depression, quitting school, getting married, and moving to Hawaii, becoming an entrepreneur, attending the University of Hawaii, going back to art school, radical art, painting, drawing, sculpture, the beats and the 1960s, motivations, studio
work, theory and exposure to art, self - doubts, education in art
history, Oakland Wedge, earth
works, context and possession, Ground Systems, Directed Seeding, Cancelled Crop, studio art, documentation, use of science and disciplines in art, conceptual art, theoretical positions, sentiments and useful rage, Robert Smithson and earth
works, Gerry Shum, Peter Hutchinson, ocean
work and red dye, breaking patterns and attempting growth, body
works, drug use and hippies, focusing on theory, turmoil, Max Kozloff's «Pygmalion Reversed,» artist as shaman and Jack Burnham, sync and acceptance of the art world, machine
works, interrogating art and one's self, Vito Acconci, public art, artisans and architects, Fireworks, dysfunction in art, periods of fragmentation, bad art and autobiographical self - exposure, discovery, being judgmental of one's own
work, critical dissent, impact of the 1950s and modernism, concern about
placement in the art world, Gypsum Gypsies, mutations of objects, reading and writing, form and content, and phases of development.