We met at a performance by Jeff Way at 75 Warren St in Tribeca in the spring of 1979. We were both redheads and there is definitely a magnetism and a recognition between redheads. We belong to the same tribe. We talked naturally and felt a kinship.
Sometimes you just know when you meet someone who will be a life-long friend. You connect. There is a click.
We became closer over the spring and summer then he left for Mexico with his long-time lover Anna, who was to become the mother of their twins. Many things changed overnight for me just before the Fourth of July that summer and I left NYC for London. We stayed in touch until Russell died of leukemia many years later.
He was a writer and a painter. I can say I loved him. I can also say I miss him, I miss the connection. At the time I was meeting remarkable persons at every cross road and became very inspired and influenced by these friendships. I did not realise then that they can become rare and now much later in life infinitely seldom. Connections are precious openings to another's world psyche. An honest genuine authentic open communication. I miss Russell. We spoke in short hand and had many memories and moments that we treasured together.
His mind was alive and his lateral thinking awesome. He expressed himself slowly and very clearly. No chatter. No blah blah blah. His paintings were very strong and singular and I wish I had one to show. His work was self-referential as that was the starting point for his explorations. My name was Jessica in his novels. It surprised me a lot. Anna was Ursula. Jessica?!?
Just before his death we met again in Pennsylvania on his family's farm, Echo Farm. We spent a whole night talking in his studio/barn and some how became clear on many of the hick-ups we had encountered in our friendship.
I love this photo of Russ on the beach.
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