MOWING THE LAWNand other of life's serious side effects.

ABOUT: a note from the author

 

MOWING THE LAWN is a three part video series taking a look into the life and works of Harry Lazare, a self-taught assemblage artist from Ghent, NY. The videos are built from recorded audio interviews with Harry and objects/images I collected in our visits. Each part too incorporates images of Harry’s assemblage art and him reading a selection of original poems.

 

I first met Harry in December of 2013 after a

friend of his had asked me if I would be

interested in interviewing him. Our first phone

call was appropriately skeptical, I was a stranger

calling him up to ask if I could record his life's

story, but he said he would think about it.

Harry had been living with MDS, a terminal

illness since 2010. Being a walking miracle,

I am sure a call like this could have felt like,

OH GOD (IF I BELEIVE IN GOD)

I DON'T WANT TO BE A PITTY PARTY

AND RECORD MY OWN ULIGY.

 

As it turned out he has a wonderful sense for finding beauty in the morbid, as can be seen in his art. Harry’s hesitation was soon replaced with the fun we began to have in unearthing his past self. Once we opened a drawer with photos from his mother and found a mouse had chewed into things. Harry picked up a gnawed at image and after telling me who was in the photo stated his wonder at the perfection the mouse had done to the composition. Or another time his face light up to share with me that after our last interview a memory of his school desk in elementary school had resurfaced and it dawned on him that the desks had inkwells, and this left him in wonder of his living placement in time. I loved these moments where I saw him play not only in nostalgia or the stories he had told many times but accessed his past in a way that effected him in the present.

 

I recall him later saying something to me like he would never have thought to do something like this and was pleasantly surprised by the experience–flirting to friends the absurdity of having “a personal biographer.” Notably, I watched as this project became just as much about his story as it was the delight he had in encouraging me along in my own experimental process in making what became this video series.

 

In the editing process I was so thankful to have his open appreciation of the drafts I brought to him. Too I must give a great thanks to his wife Kathleen, his family and all the friends who gave me feedback along the way. By no means do I think the product reflects all of what makes up Harry Lazare, or does justice to the medium of video, but I set out to make biographical work that could be enjoyed by Harry himself and all the people that know him. The three parts move chronologically, yet I left room for the present to play with his past. This can be seen in moments like in Part 2 when Harry takes a call from Kathleen, his wife, in the middle of an interview. Harry is as I would learn, the perfect candidate for an oral historian as he loves to talk about himself. At his 68th birthday party we celebrated with a gallery hanging and showing of Part 1& 2. He said in playful jest after the viewing, “I am so excited about this because I can annoy you all for years to come.” I share this to emphasis the joy and fun we had in this process. As the author of the videos I was tickled to see at this same birthday party a room full of people view the series together and hear them laugh and interact with our presentation of Harry and his stories.

 

I have only and always will know Harry as he lives his final chapter of life. In the completion of the 3rd video last September Harry’s MDS was amazingly in remission. In June Harry had another birthday, he turned 69. Though in this new year, his MDS has retuned in full force. 5 years after a median 14 month diagnosis he has wondrously lived playfully and wisely in preparation for dying. Now he begins to experience it. I have not turned the digital-recorder on since September 2014, but I continue to witness his life through periodic phone calls or visit when I am in town.  I get to hear the great and absurd adventures of his days–doctors appointments and pain thwarted by strategic use of a clown nose or a politically unsavory joke he has collected. I find it an unexpected blessing to have Harry call to give me an update and say I have been an important friend over the past two years. We never know when we might face mortality though it is a risk we all chance every day. Harry tells the story of weighing in the grocery store shortly after his diagnosis in 2010, whether to buy the unripe or the ripe bananas, having a friend knock him back to his senses, he realized his impending expiration had no set date on the calendar.

 

Harry is no angel with his words or “baffo personality,” knowing him challenges me to be more intentional in how I approach my life. He is in the time I have known him an exemplar of living for the VENERATION of the people, creatures, and objects in his world. This veneration notably manifests in his collection and assembly of stuff, though he adamantly believes in having little attachment to our material world, he gets satisfaction from playing with it to see our reaction.

 

His perspectives and observations make me remember how I looked at the world as a kid, often pointing out things to people: “Let me show you this.” “Can I share something with you?” Driving once he stopped to point out to me the beauty he found in the precision of a dozen or so birds sitting equidistant from each other on a telephone wire.  These stories and his friendship is living in me–I hope you may be touched by my attempt to share Harry Lazare’s story with you all. I only ask you to instead of crying for him, laugh and smile with him.

 

Thank you for reading my thoughts.

 

Warmly,

Emma

7.20.2015