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.

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.”

““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/