Life Stories
Check back often for additional stories from the life of Rita Blitt.
NEW YORK CITY 1969: A QUESTION OF SPIRITUALITY
In 1969, at the opening of my first exhibition in New York City, a critic for the Kansas City Star was in attendance. He approached me after viewing my acrylic sculpture Orblitt (Joy-Pain), which hung above us from the ceiling.
He asked me, “What are your feelings about G-d?”
Surprised by the question, I thought to myself, “why does he want to talk about religion? I want to talk about my art!”
Later in the evening, I was speaking with critic’s wife. I asked her about her husband’s question. She said, “He must have seen something in your work.”
In the following years, I struggled with the question of where my art was coming from. Through my spiritual search that began with the critic’s question, I gained insight, acceptance and appreciation for the unknowable forces in my life and in my creativity.
Orblitt (Joy-Pain),1968, acrylic, 22 x 22 x 22 inches Mulvane Art Museum
A MOMENT OF JOYOUS SERENDIPITY
In 1973, I created a found object sculpture that I call my ladder sculpture, but its official name is Dance of Destiny. The story of the sculpture began when I visited a small farm on land that was being cleared for a shopping mall. The farmer’s family had been there for a hundred years, so there was lots of accumulation for an eager artist to sift through to create found object sculptures. I found an aluminum ladder - perhaps about eleven feet - and I asked the farmer to bend it in two, like a triangle, and weld it for me in that position. The ladder was going to be ready for me in four days, when I returned from a quick New York weekend trip.
While in New York, I saw a small broom and was fascinated by it, and I was being rushed to the airport for the trip back to Kansas City, so for $1.75 I purchased the broom and carried it home on the airplane. That broom was united with the ladder that the farmer had lent for me. In order for the broom to stand straight on top of the ladder, I had to not only wire it to the top of the ladder - of the triangle, now - but I had to weight it down at the bottom so that it would stand up straight, with the broom on top of the broomstick. I remembered a silver ball in the freezer that we were given as an anniversary present. The ball, now in the freezer, was intended to be attached to the side of a cocktail shaker. I ran and got that ball and attached it to the bottom of the broom so that it held the broom standing straight. This was the wildest creation I had ever made or seen.
Three days after completing this work, reading the New York Times book review section, I came across a reproduction of a French print from 1844 that bore a remarkable resemblance to my new sculpture. I was startled by this amazing coincidence- I couldn’t believe it! This moment affirmed my intuition and fueled my spiritual quest.
Dance of Destiny, 1973, found object / mixed media, 66 x 56 x 18 inches
La Concurrence from Un autre monde. 1844 hand-colored wood engraving. J.J. Grandville