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| Arthur Erickson |
My eldest granddaughter Rebecca is in hospital because of a bad infection and sometime tonight she will be operated on in New Westminster. I went to visit and we chatted for 3 hours. I gave her a book (a copy I purchased at MacLeod books yesterday.
Which book. This one because it influence me more than any other book I have ever read. I bought my copy in 1966 in the Buenos Aires bookstore Pigmalion that sold books in every language except in Spanish. When I was buying Markings there was a man also there who was buying books. He was an oldish man who was almost blind. I was much too stupid and ignorant to realize that I was standing right next to Jorge Luís Borges.
Because the book has short paragraphs and is not a novel, Rebecca will be able to pick it up every once in a while on her hospital bed.
In our conversation I had to bring up the subject of a famous Canadian architect that she met at least three times. My favourite time (and she did remember!) is when I was having a picnic outside the Museum of Anthropology with an old man with grey hair. Rebecca came up to him and said, “Who are you? You look familiar.” The man answered, “I am Arthur Erickson and I built this place.”
After seeing her smile I told her another story. This is based on the fact that portrait photographers to make their subjects ready for their portrait must find some sort of common ground.
I was in Erickson’s little garage-turned-into a little house and asked him. “Arthur, why do you live here when you could have bought a house with a view of the mountains and the sea?” His answer is one that I would guess he never ever told any writers who may have interviewed him.
“I wanted to live in a place that did not have a view made by God. I wanted a view that I put in as I planted this garden.”
When I was about to shoot the portrait here, Erickson told me, “Alex you want to make my look like Frank Lloyd Wright.” I immediately answered, “Not a chance as you are wearing flip-flops."
