Gutai (Note to Self)

"Yet what is interesting in this respect is the novel beauty to be found in works of art and architecture of the past which have changed their appearance due to the damage of time or destruction by disasters in the course of the centuries. This is described as the beauty of decay, but is it not perhaps that beauty which material assumes when it is freed from artificial make-up and reveals its original characteristics? The fact that the ruins receive us warmly and kindly after all, and that they attract us with their cracks and flaking surfaces, could this not really be a sign of the material taking revenge, having recaptured its original life?..."
- excerpt from the Gutai Manifesto (1956)

To Be and To Be Blessed (Northern Missouri)

Thank you and Goodbye, Helen Levitt!

Helen Levitt, one of my favorite photographers and a real inspiration to my art-making, just died. Here is a link to the NY Times article about her life and work.

Helen Levitt, Who Froze New York Street Life on Film, Is Dead at 95
By Margarett Loke
March 30, 2009
Ms. Levitt was a major photographer of the 20th century who caught fleeting moments of surpassing lyricism, mystery and quiet drama on the streets of her native New York.