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Life Lessons from John Outterbridge, The Most Influential “Rag Man” (2021)

John Outterbridge, the rag man,  has found a way to transcend an apparent lot of oppression and devalue into a path to true sight and the ability to beautify what was horrid.

His life discovery is found in the truth that everything has value and everything gives change.

John Outterbridge: Rag Man, December 12, 2015–February 27, 2016. Installation at Art + Practice, Los Angeles. Photo: Joshua White
John Outterbridge: Rag Man, December 12, 2015–February 27, 2016. Installation at Art + Practice, Los Angeles. Photo: Joshua White

The rag man seeing the value of all even and more so things seen as detestable and inharmonious orhanizes them into unique pieces of art, making a mess into beautiful decoration which brings with it a sense of providence.

Key Takeaways:

  • “At its root,” Outterbridge explained recently in an email interview, “is the idea that everything has value. Everything has meaning. Everything has impact.”
  • “The rags that hung out to dry blew in the wind like colorful tapestries,” he remembered, “and I was touched by the perfect order that those rags had.” He treasured ad-hoc assemblage in his neighborhood like “the glass bottles in the trees that made music for me and my siblings.”
  • “I put memories…away in pockets and places,” Outterbridge said. “I wrap things up and save them for a time they might be useful. That’s the nature and the practice and the process of assemblage.”
ohn Outterbridge: Rag Man, December 12, 2015–February 27, 2016. Installation at Art + Practice, Los Angeles. Photo: Joshua White
John Outterbridge: Rag Man, December 12, 2015–February 27, 2016. Installation at Art + Practice, Los Angeles. Photo: Joshua White

““At its root,” Outterbridge explained recently in an email interview, “is the idea that everything has value. Everything has meaning. Everything has impact.””

http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/life-lessons-from-south-l-a-s-most-influential-rag-man/

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