RITA BLITT Rita Blitt wiTh SEEking TruTh
Interview by Sydney Keyes
Sydney Keyes: How do you think your early life and childhood affected your art making? Rita Blitt: My strongest childhood memory is of my mother being on the phone, working to establish Israel as a national Jewish homeland to give victims of the Holocaust a place to flee to. Some of my earliest works, from age ten, reveal my concerns for people of color. Certainly these experiences contributed to my sensitivity, valuable in creating art. On a lighter note, my grandfather made designs for an embroidery company in New York. At the bottom of his family letters, he drew lines of flowers, which I think of as being just for me. As a toddler, I made lines echoing his flowers. I believe this was the beginning of my dancing lines.
What is your earliest memory of making art? Rita: It was so exciting for me to see blank pieces of paper for drawing as they were being passed out in class. I remember in first grade the art superintendent holding up and praising my drawing. That meant a lot to me. Then, in fifth grade, when I won a scholarship to children's classes at the Kansas City Art Institute, I felt that maybe someday I could become an artist.
I read in your book, The Passionate Gesture that within your drawings you discover sculpture. How does that come about, and do you ever discover an idea for a sculpture that then inspires a drawing? Rita: In 1976, architect Chris Ramos discov ered that my drawings would make good
30 • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2017 THE ARTFUL MIND
sculpture for his projects. The first drawing he chose was to become the 26-foot Stablitt 55 in Rockaway, New Jersey. In order to make a pattern for the fabricators, I decided to send my little drawing to the blueprint company and ask them to blow up the drawing to 26 feet. What I did not anticipate was that it was returned to me in 18 pieces. Crawling around on the floor, I figured out a way to put these puzzle pieces together. After fabrication and shipping, a panicky installation moment proved that a part of the sculpture was left behind in Kansas City. At first, I hollered up to the frustrated men on the scaffold trying to put the sculpture together, "My fabricators said it was idiot-proof.” They hollered back down to me, "Next time bring the idiots.” Recently I created Sending Love, a memorial sculpture for people who, many years ago,