Party or Bust

This is Steve. Steve is a taxicab driver in Hartford, Connecticut. This is a story about how several people came to make physical likenesses of Steve -- people he has never met -- just because he asked them to. As so often happens on the interwebs, one site, project, thread, etc. leads to another. While I was learning about Miranda July's book coming out next month, which I mentioned in my last post, I also learned about various other projects she and others have been working on. One such project is Joanie 4 Jackie, "an alternative distribution system for women moviemakers. Every woman who sends her short film or video to Joanie 4 Jackie receives a Chainletter tape in the mail." Excellent. Almost makes me wish I was a filmmaker. [::A'hem, April::] I mean, I already have the female part down. Another is Learning To Love You More, in which "Participants accept an assignment, complete it by following the simple but specific instructions, send in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and see their work posted on-line. Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience." The assignments are created by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher and their pal Yuri Ono does the site maintenance Currently, LTLYM has 63 assignments. Assignment #21 is Sculpt a Bust of Steve. But why Steve? Here is the story:

Recently while working on a project in Hartford, CT I took a taxi and met Steve the taxi driver. I was headed to Real Art Ways the art center where I'm doing the project. Steve asked me where I was going and then concluded that I must be an artist. He told me that I should sculpt a bust of him. He gave me a picture of himself and told me he wanted it done that day, and then we would "party" that night. I said that I might have trouble getting it done so quickly, and then asked him how he would feel about various other people doing the bust instead of me. He said that would be fine.

The next time I went back to Hartford about a month later I took a train from NYC and missed my stop in Hartford. I got off at the next stop in a little town outside of Hartford. It was late at night and there was no one at the station. I called a local taxi company and they told me it would be about an hour before someone could pick me up. I sat down and read a book and waited. Eventually a cab pulled up and the driver got out to help me with my bags. It was Steve. He immediately recognized me and asked me about the project. I was amazed. It wasn't even his taxi company that I had called. He drove me to the place I was staying at in Hartford and along the way he told me about being a single parent. He told me that his philosophy on child rearing is to only love the child, never discipline them. He said his children were all perfect. I thought that was really nice.

So far, 29 people have submitted busts of Steve. Some are very serious, detailed and intricate, like this one. Others are quite silly while still technically great (even if it looks more like Saddam than Steve), like this one -- one of my favorites in the collection: The whole thing makes me curious about the timing, as submissions come from all over the globe: Portland, Oregon, Scotland, New York City, Hartford, Cincinnati and all manner of other places in between. The "party" theme seems to be pretty prevalent and I wonder if folks were inspired by other busts or if their inspiration lie purely in the story of Steve. I suppose it doesn't so much matter; it's funny either way. I hope Steve has seen these images or that he may even be the recipient of one or two. And I hope he got to party. For Art. Post Script: Here's another assignment that I thought produced something incredibly hilarious: Assignment #47 - Reenact a scene from a movie that made someone else cry. Here, Kara Hearn of Berkeley, California remakes a scene from Steven Spielberg's E.T., in which she plays the rolls of E.T., Elliott, Michael, Gertie and Mary. Brilliant.