John Giorno in The Poetry Loft at 222 Bowery, NYC. March 2003.
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(Two portraits of John Giorno. Mixed media/Board. 2010. 5" X 7")
My friend the Poet Phil Good once said that to visit John Giorno in his loft at 222 Bowery was to get a vitamin shot. He was right. John was ball of passionate energy. When I interviewed him at his spacious top floor loft on December 7, 2002 I felt as though I was in the presence of a very pure forcefield. John's work as a poet, record producer, conceptualist, visual artist and Aids Activist are only part of the story. He was also a performer and a healer (something I experienced first hand at the end of our interview). John was compassion in action, an accomplished Tibetan Buddhist practitioner & meditator since the early seventies, he used his vocation as poet/performer to ease human suffering the best he could, a true Bhodhisattva. When the tidal wave of AIDS hit in the 1980's John devoted much of his energy to his AIDs Treatment Project which raised cash for endless gay men who needed everything from rent & food money to someone being there at the moment of death (John personally presided over the deaths of many AIDS victims, often holding their hand as they made their transition). When AIDs crested in the early 90's, John raised money for artists & writers at times of dire need such as a health crisis. The thing about it is that John did this on his own - corralling Tibetan doctors, rock musicians, painters, sculptors and wealthy arts patrons to contribute assistance with a sense of urgency - and love. There was no middle man. When someone needed something John gave it to them directly. And quickly. Meditation in action - John was enlightened, of that I am sure.
The photos above were taken in John's Poetry Loft at 222 Bowery in NYC in March 2003 as we edited our interview. A somewhat smaller space than his top floor loft, it was filled with his bold face poetry posters and a small tondo of violet & sky blue by his husband Artist Udo Rondinone. I asked John if I could take some photos and he gladly agreed, falling into a series of relaxed poses. Our interview would be published in The Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation Journal later that year - in its entirety. John and I both retained copyright and I was happy to see the interview translated into several languages and be cited in Brion Gysin's biography and a book about The Chelsea Hotel, making me proud. You can access the interview on this blog, linked below. John died Friday October 11, 2019. I didn't find out until the following Monday when his obit was made public by The NY Times. On Saturday October 12, 2019 one of my portraits of John was in an exhibition at Volition Gallery in Orangeburg, NY. The best group show I was ever in. And it sold! (It's the ghost image of John on the right, above).
When asked by The New York Times what his most prized possession was - John said a gold, gilded statue of Guru Rinpoche in yab yum with his consort, noting that he had a family heirloom (a diamond from his mother) inserted into Guru Rinpoche's crown. He also loved Saga Dawa - the day celebrated as Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death. "I love that day!" John said to me. And I could tell that he did.
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