14 Dec

This is who you’ve become

Posted by admin in Progress |

Here are the letters, e-mails, pictures and posts regarding the pieces that people have responded to.  I’m not altering anything, just exploring meaning.  Send me WHATEVER.  Art has no rules.

Piece 2: #57 – Rodger Williams Park

Bill Benson1Posted by Bill Benson on 12.13.09 at 3:17 pm:  Hi, saw yr work this am. Left it where it was, now its gone. Best of luck. Bill

LJ: I’m interested why you didn’t take the piece?

12/14: Lee, I used to live above Steeple street and I would hang paintings all around that area for people to take. I never knew who took them or why, but occasionally I would see one hanging in someone’s house while at a party or someone would ask me if it were mine. I too enjoyed the mystery of coincidence. Now I’m back to photography. Several times this month I have been stopped by the police while out early or late. And I’ve started saying the same thing, I’m not trespassing, I am documenting. And so I try not to manipulate the scene. Maybe if I were just out for a bike ride I’d have taken it. Anyway, now we’re both wondering where it is. I’ll send you some other photos of the piece and feel free to use them all.  Bill

Bill Benson412/15:  Lee, on my way to the cafe today, on my bike, I decided to go through the park and look for more bowls. Half way through I caught something on the ground which was a bit odd because the rangers keep it pretty neat. Its yr letter and bag. Pretty sure you won’t find out where it went now. Bill

LJ: Ha!  How interesting.  I wonder which piece it is.   Did you leave the bag/envelop in place?  I’m interested in the number on the inside of the letter- that will dictate the piece.  I have no clue if anyone will write me back for any of the pieces.  It is all speculation that anyone would care past the commodity.  That is not for me to decide.  Off to disperse more works, Feel free to try to engage the project and find any of the more obscure ones.

Bill Benson3

Piece 3: #39 – Charlesgate, 100 Randal St.

individual

Posted by Perry Pono on 10.12.09 at 1:29 pm

I found your piece while you were photographing it at the rear of 50 Randall St. and asked what you were doing. Your reply reminded me of a person who left small figures in places throughout the world and thought that was…well I really do not know what I thought until I met you and your explanation on your site of being exposed to art. I guess art is what the viewer sees and what art means to him/her. I like to draw and used to make super heros for my nephew. The hours it took me to make it was worth the reaction I received…bringing a smile to another…Thanks.

Piece 17: #40 – Into the post office box on Dorrance and Pine -  “postage due” slip.  I think this is just as interesting as the vessel.

USPS slip

Piece 28: #62 – Slipped into Janet Zweig’s bag

“Hello Lee,

Much to my surprise, here in my bag on the bus is a bowl covered in question marks and drawings of worry birds! The bag did feel unusually heavy, but I didn’t think to look inside until well into the bus ride.

My first thought: The worry bird, that’s my totem.
(Well, everyone who knows me knows I’m an epic worrier.)

My next thought: how do I know what a worry bird is? The visual memory is right here, long gone, but suddenly available and completely vivid: a small pink and blue wooden worry bird, one foot broken, a flattened pink ribbon on it’s head. This was probably the first hand-made art object I ever laid my eyes on.

My third thought: “What, if anything, is an object?”

This was the title of a perfect exhibit I saw at the Fogg Museum 15 years ago. A small room was filled with carefully arranged objects culled from the collections. At the center of the room was a carved hand by Brancusi, the pivot around which all the other objects revolved. The objects progressed towards the walls where they resolved into distinct categories: art, implement, device, fetish, etc., while the objects moving toward the walls contained many overlapping qualities and meanings.

Last thought before taking a nap: what is this object in my bag? a bowl, a painting, a sculpture, a memento, a totem, an artifact, a gift, a conversation, a strategy. And a magical device to recover childhood memories.

Bests, Janet”

Piece 38: #67 – Starbucks, Wayland Sq

I discovered your beautiful bowl on Tuesday afternoon outside the Starbucks in Wayland Square. I was so humbled to find your piece & delighted. I actually looked around to see if anyone else was around. It was hard for me to believe that the ‘you’ was me!
I’m actually a RISD alumni (2007) from the industrial & graphic design departments. I was inside the Starbucks in Wayland Square studying for my Anatomy final exam. Since RISD, I went back to school to try something completely different. I’ve felt disconnected to art scene & all the amazingly talented, artsy friends I made there. Thank you for brightening up my day and making me feel once again connected. Actually,  my senior degree project focused on the process of giving thanks and (essentially) doing random acts of kindness for people…so I feel like karma has returned in my favor! What a great idea & how fascinating to hear all the different stories from all involved.
Good Luck & thanks again,
Carrie

Piece 56: #17 – Nightingale-Brown House, 357 Benefit st

Bingo! No. 56! It’s beautiful! Picked it up and said, “RISD public art project!” And it is… Thanks very much. WIll use it as in classes this spring.

Steve

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