Rena Small
2002, June
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, La Jolla, CA
[Artist's Hands]

Gelatin silver print
Provided by the artist - Rena Small
© Rena Small 2008
 
The experience working with Christo and Jeanne-Claude was an evolutionary collaboration. At first it was just Christo I photographed in NYC in July 1985, since that is how he was always known, and his wife, Jeanne-Claude was his right hand woman and producer extroadinare. So this was the first quote that was donated to me by Jeanne-Claude for Christo:
 
"For my public art works, we do not use advanced technology, the work is done, in all our projects, by hundreds of people using their hands." (Christo, 1985)
 
Later I contacted Jeanne-Claude and asked a new question a curiosity I had to find out when was the first moment the artists realized they were artists? Here is her answer: Mailed to me over ten years later. Christo says that when he was age six, his mother and father noticed that he liked to spend his time drawing. So his parents hired a tutor to come and teach him every day after school (instead of having violin lessons, for example.) Christo states that he has been trying to be an artist ever since. Jeanne-Claude explains that she became an artist after meeting Christo in Paris at age twenty-three. She did this out of love for Christo. If Christo had been a dentist, she would have become a dentist.
 
Rena Small (May 2008)
 
LL/28857