KITTY
Below is a digital version of the piece I mailed to Puebla, Mexico for Devin Cohen’s call for mail art dedicated to Jonas Mekas. Mekas, who passed away at age 96 in 2019, was one of a small handful of people who deeply influence(d) how I live, or try to live, my life. He was born in Lithuania and moved to New York in ‘49 after living through some pretty harrowing experiences. He went on to co-found the Anthology Film Archives and made dozens of films that captured moments of living - like a moving image diary. He had an approach to life that can be summed up in one of his many quotes “Keep dancing. Keep singing. Have a good drink and do not get too serious.”
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty. This is a title from one of his films. It perfectly sums up life for me. When I keep this in mind, I feel like everything is okay.
The quote on my photograph (which captures what was for me a perfect moment with good friends I don’t get to see enough and sleazy pizza) (or sleazy friends and good pizza) was spoken by Joaquim Pinto who made another moving image diary film called What Now? Remind Me that also affected me to the extent that I wear that quote engraved in silver around my wrist. I’ll let José translate the quote if he wants to.
“As pessoas continuam a viver como se isto não tivesse fim. Isto é limitado, não vale a pena perder tempo”