I’d like to apologize in advance, because if you’re like me, you don’t really enjoy hearing about other people’s dreams. But I thought this was relevant to A Life’s Work.
I’m at Arcosanti and Paolo Soleri asks me if I would like to walk with him. I do gladly. Suddenly we approach the New School in Manhattan. We walk to a building he designed, a very un-Soleri like black glass cube. He asks if I would like to video it. I hesitate, because the building doesn’t say “Arcosanti” or “Soleri,” though his name is on the building and running on a diagonal, but too small to register. Then I think—yes, it might work in a montage of his work. A shot of the amphitheater in Santa Fe, a shot of this building in New York. Cars are parked in front and I wonder if we could clear them so I could capture a long shot. As I think this a security guard/food vendor tells the driver in one of the cars he is parked illegally and must move. Paolo and I look at the building. I ask him when I should shoot it. He says March, around 4:00 pm. This is when the light on the building is best, he tells me.
We talk though I don’t remember what about. We then walk into the building and it is very institutional—again, very un-Soleri-esque. We are in a stairwell and we talk about how difficult it is to raise money for our projects. He walks down a stairway while I stand on the landing. “Don’t give your children cameras,” he sighs and turns the corner, disappearing.
End of dream. Thank you for indulging me.