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February 27, 2016 by tomdalzell

Leonard Pitt – Structures and Paris and Detroit and Masks and Chocolate

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

Leonard Pitt calls this a structure.

Here is the story of the structures.

lenny_kid

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt

Pitt grew up in Detroit.

1959_Lenny

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt

After high school he attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.  He studied to become a commercial artist.  He returned to Detroit after graduation and went to work as a commercial artist.  Not for him!

a6c26144cd3f244585f05b539b0a0557He got on the Queen Elizabeth in 1962 and went to France.

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt

He lived in Paris until 1970. Paris was as good as commercial art was not.

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

He studied with Etienne Decroux, a great master of mime.

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

He lived frugally, intoxicated with Paris and life – there’s something in the air of France that does a young man good.  He sold sketches.  And he started making structures to sell.  This was his first design – bamboo and Japanese paper.  It was time-consuming.

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

Experimenting, he made cubes and then pyramids, or tetrahedrons.  The epiphany slash gestalt slash awakening was – if he bisected one angle on one side, he could stack the tetrahedrons and make complex structures.

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt

He sold a few of the flat panels in Paris, but the structures were too fragile.  He loved them and making them.

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015 Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

And so it is that his Grant Street home is filled with structures, resting on bookcases and suspended from the ceiling.

walks_cover3 paris_cover_206w

postcards_cover_206w

His love of Paris, at least the Paris of the past, is reflected in books that he has written about Paris.

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015 Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015 Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015And in postcards and posters and pulp paperbacks with “Paris” in the title.

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

What says “Paris” better than an accordion?

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

Nothing! He’s got two or three.

In 1970, Pitt left Paris and came to Berkeley.

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt.

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt.

In 1973 he went to Bali and studied mask-making and Balinese dance, working here with I Nyoman Kakui.

1978_bali2

Photo courtesy of Leonard Pitt

Five years later he returned to Bali and studied mask-making with Ida Bagus Anom.

Hence:

Screen Shot 2016-02-27 at 8.15.13 AM

Photos courtesy of Leonard Pitt

Pitt carved these masks. He has collected others.

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015There are masks throughout the house.

Mime and Balinese dancing have informed Pitt.  He has been active in the theater, changing things up.

Quirky Berkeley in Berkeley Calif, on December 30th, 2015.Here he holds a postcard that he got from his uncle, showing his great-grandmother in front of her home in the shtetel of Vapniarka, a settlement in the Ukraine. It was Pitt’s mother’s childhood home.

All of what I have shown you is in the main house.  There is more –

Quirky Berkeley in Berkeley Calif, on December 30th, 2015.

In 1996, Pitt designed and Ron Bogley built this lovely little fairytale cottage behind the house.

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

Amazing!  The timbers are 100-year-old salvaged lumber.  Travis Pratt took an adze to them to create the distressed look.

dripsMORE3

The Berkeley Chocolate Club meetings in this room.  Pitt is the President.

Do you see the bookcases at the end of the room?

Quirky Berkeley in Berkeley Calif, on December 30th, 2015.

The one on the right serves as door to the bathroom.

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

It is an extraordinary, quirky bathroom.

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

Pitt has led – and is leading – an exceptionally creative and interesting life.  He has a great website.

Quirky Berkeley 12-30-2015

And a new book that has just come out.  I will read it with great interest.  He will be signing it in the coming weeks:

March 1, University Press Books, Berkeley, 5 pm
March 8, Mrs. Dalloways, Berkeley, 7:30 pm
March 14 City Lights Books in SF. 7 pm
March 24, Book Passage in Corte Madera, 7 pm
March 30, Hillside Club in Berkeley, 7:30 pm

I look at the points on Pitt’s compass – Detroit, Paris, and Berkeley – and think.  We talked about the three cities, all of whom he loves.  When he was  young man, Paris and Berkeley were accessible to the young, the struggling, the creative.  Now, not so much.  Now we have Detroit.  Pitt says without hesitation – “If I were 50 years younger, Detroit is where I would go.”

I showed the photos to my friend.  He wasn’t in the mood to think about his hometown Detroit, but instead zoomed in on the structures.  “Far ….. out.”  What about the whole, this little glimpse of Leonard Pitt?

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P.S.  This is one other Leonard Pitt book.

Screen Shot 2016-02-27 at 11.40.27 AM

A 17th century Irish healer.  Eight years of Pitt’s life, tracking down material about Greatrakes and a copy of his 1666 memoir.  Add that to the obsession list.

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4 Responses to Leonard Pitt – Structures and Paris and Detroit and Masks and Chocolate

  1. Penny Brogden says:
    February 27, 2016 at 6:26 pm

    I love this story! Pitt is someone I have heard about all my life, but our paths never crossed.
    Great job.

    Reply
  2. Harry says:
    March 2, 2016 at 4:35 am

    A wonderful parade of your adventurous life, Lenny! It’s been so sweet to have you as a compatriot over all these years, going back to our Detroit, Cass Tech High School days. Now look, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten yourself (and us) into! Xo, Harry

    Reply
  3. will says:
    March 18, 2016 at 1:16 am

    Fascinating life and fellow. Funny, I was thinking maybe Detroit is the place to be. NY, SF, Paris have long ago jumped the shark.

    Reply
  4. Jacquelyn Goudeau says:
    July 16, 2016 at 9:25 pm

    Dear Leonard,
    You may remember me…I am a buddy of Terrance Gelenter.
    Picked up a copy of your bio at SF public library yesterday…I am only to the part about Marcel Marceau….but I realize how much I appreciate your honest writing. It takes courage to put in print so many historic things…but I do feel that honesty keeps us human and understanding of others…through out the history of the world…and about creative people who are working to find their path in the world…as we move beyond the traditional roles.
    Merci,
    Jacquelyn Goudeau
    Jacquelyn Goudeau

    Reply

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