I have been really fortunate over the last few years to have gone places I normally would not have gone.
Earlier this year I went to New York to attend The Peabody Awards, I wrote a little bit about it here, “including a scene with Jeanne- Claude and Christo.”:http://www.squanderedheritage.com/2009/05/19/my-name-is-not-monica/
I had first seen her in the elevator at the Waldorf while I was heading up to my room, it was like being in a box with a lit match. And it wasn’t just her hair, it was her very being. I was too intimidated to ask to take her photo and she seemed busy directing folks around. So I just kind of stewed in the happiness of seeing someone I respected, not just for the work that she has done but for the fact that she had claimed her rights to be credited for the work that she and her husband had done together, but had always been known as just his work.
When you saw her in person it was obvious that he was the internal and she was the external.
It made me sad to see that she had “passed away.”:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/arts/design/20jeanne-claude.html?_r=1&hp
Oh, no! She passed away? Terrible, terrible news. May her memory be for a blessing.
Yes, I have always enjoyed the Christo works, but discovering Jeanne-Claude turned out to be a whole’nuther ball game on its own.
My very close friend who had worked on their project in Florida where they wrapped some Keys in pastel colors said much the same thing about her, only to add that such a person didn’t have to talk to teach, though talk they did well. And, completely volunteer, he also said they paid everyone with a pastel colored check for $1 signed by them both.