Poetic Larceny Artists Reveal #13 – Ryan Andes
And how can I learn more about Flux’s upcoming production of Pretty Theft?
RYAN ANDES
Previous Flux stuff: 1st time with Flux, unless you count the Tribal Battle of the Bards Dance Circle (of which he was the Prime Minister) ((and we do – count it, that is))
We asked the amazing artists of our upcoming staged reading series Poetic Larceny to answer some questions about stealing, beauty, and consequences. Read on for their answers!
In high school, my best friend at the time and I orchestrated the theft of his dad’s 1976 Mercedes 420S series racer. While pops was away on vacation for a week, we snuck into the garage in the middle of the night and pushed it into the street and drove off. His dad found out (of course) and reported it to the police. Three days later the car broke down in a synagogue parking lot and we had to ditch it. The cops found it and brought it back, mostly unharmed, but the harm we did to that man’s soul was irreparable.
I have lost a lot to thieves. Wallet(s) in Barcelona (2 times), money, backpacks, gym clothes, hood ornaments. But the single worst blow dealt was the theft of my laptop the day I returned home to the USA after living in Rome for a year. The laptop itself was inconsequential, although its loss did suck. During that past year, I spent almost every day uploading photos and keeping a journal of my time and adventures in Rome. It disappeared out of my luggage cart while loading my car outside of Newark Int’l Airport, my first day back in the US. And, of course, I didn’t back anything up.
Question #3: What do you find pretty?
A hillside of wildflowers. A Tiffany lamp. The sleek lines of a Ducati. Flocks of birds. Dew on a leaf. Blown glass. Some bugs. Houseplants.
Question #4: What do you find beautiful?
The way a body of water reflects sunlight at dusk. Dusk. Cloud formations. When trees meet cliffs. Ancient Marble sculpture. Microcosms. Warblers. Squirrels. Iridescence in nature. Green eyes. Intelligent hands. Honesty. Sunlight. An individual snowflake. Formations of geology. Flowing water. The smell of dirt. Groups of trees. Uninhibited laughter. Ospreys. When words and music fuse perfectly.
Question #5: If you could steal something beautiful without consequences, what would it be?
There is a piece of a 3500 year old sculpture, a broken chunk of yellow jasper, in the Egyptian wing at the Met. It is the face of a woman, but only the chin and lips remain intact. What remains betrays a perfection of beauty unparalleled, and the broken edges display a sharp contrast to the softness captured in stone. The mind fills in the beauty that is lost to the centuries, and it becomes flawless in the imagination.
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